Partners of the Heart
by TriplePivotTurn
Summary: Yuugi is wondering about mou hitori no boku. Wondering just who is this spirit, living within the golden incasings of the millennium puzzle. Some how he will know who mou hitori no boku is.YxYY
1. Like a Turtle

Like a Turtle.

There's always one thing I don't understand. Always one thing that I just don't quite get about mou hitori no boku. Probably the most obvious one, when I first came to realise and recognise his existence, was who was he? Who was this being inhabiting me? Who was filling the times when time left me and all was black for a second to my reality. Who was mou hitori no boku?

I craved the knowledge, hungrily, thirstily pursuing it. But every time I drew close to comprehension, every time I caught a glimpse of him and reached out to touch… He was gone. Sucked back into his shell. The Millennium Puzzle. Whenever there was danger, he would poke his head out, snap and fight, and then when the battle was over, his head would retreat back into the safety of his shell, and all I'd be left with was the shell, still wearing it around my neck and tracing the cracks of it's intricate design with my fingertips as I pondered. Well at least he chose a very stylish shell. A very powerful shell as well.

I sighed, in what Jounouchi and Anzu will say with much romantic dust in their eyes, in longing. But then again, I was longing for something. Thing. That term bothers me, he's not a thing, he's a spirit, a person. He has a soul, heck that's what he is. A soul, sealed in a puzzle for all of time… I wonder if that bothers him.

'Mou hitori no boku?' I whispered in my mind, not really expecting an answer. I hardly ever got one if I was contacting him for any other reasons than, immediate danger, soon to be coming danger, worry about danger, or the after effects of danger. Mostly anything that involved me and danger colliding in some fashion would stir a response from mou hitori no boku.

'Yes, aibou?' Guess I was wrong.

Aibou. He always calls me aibou. Partner. I don't feel like a partner in this. I feel like a second shell, a softer more vulnerable shell that Mou hitori no boku needs to protect. But now his shell had a problem, I had just called to mou hitori no boku 'cause I was thinking of him, and didn't expect him to answer me. Now he had, it was a different ball game entirely.

'W-When I get home, t-to my room.' Deep breath, stop mentally stuttering. Who honestly stutters in their own mind? 'I was wondering if I could, talk to you?'

…

'You are talking to me now aren't you?'

'I-I mean,' stuttering again, 'in my hearts room.'

My breathing stopped, or at least decreased so much that I was breathing so shallowly it seemed as though I had stopped. I waited for his reply. It seemed to take eternity. Jounouchi and Anzu were getting worried by the small discolouring of my cheeks as I waited so impatiently and anxiously.

'That's fine.'

Exhale, and don't choke. Phew. For a moment there I feared a "no", a carefully worded and immaculately articulate "no". But the reply I received was so much more satisfying I was almost levitating out of my seat. I was going to speak with mou hitori no boku, get to see him. He would leave his shell, and venture into the heart of mine and speak with me. This hadn't happened before.

"What's up Yug'. Ya zoned out on us for a while d'ere."

"He was talking to his other self I bet. So what did he say Yuugi?" Anzu asked with her usual amount of perky interest. I couldn't help but notice Jounouchi also leaned in as she asked. He craved to know too.

"I, I just wanted to ask him something." I said, evading slightly. I don't know why. They are my best friends, so I don't know why it bothers me slightly that I had asked mou hitori no boku to talk with me later in my hearts room, and he'd agreed. Maybe I wanted to keep it to myself, save them asking later about how it went. Maybe that was it…

"What'd ya ask?" Jou requested, leaning still further in as though he was trying to press the knowledge free of me with the dominance and poking playfulness of his aura. Anzu was doing a similar thing.

"Oh just asked to talk to him later about something…about last week." I knew it was a lie, Well, mostly a lie. But I just didn't want them to know, and saying I just wanted to talk to him, sounded, to me, love struck and somewhat foolish.

"Oh okay. Well I have a curfew, and I'm pretty sure that Grandpa imposes a similar curfew on you Yuugi." Anzu said, the bottom of her chair scraping along the hard stone tiles of the food court at the mall. I looked at my watch.

"Oh no! You're right Anzu. I better really get going, Grandpa hates me to be late!" I said, snatching up my backpack from the floor as my own chair grated out. I hurriedly said my good-byes and rushed out of the mall, dodging people and trying to avoid accidentally slapping someone in the face with my hair. It had happened once, to my great horror and embarrassment, but in my defence it was Jounouchi's fault.

Xx-Back at The humble home of the Mouto's-xX

…Suddenly I'm not feeling too great about this talk with mou hitori no boku. I mean, we've never really talked, I've never really seen him, and I don't really know what to say to him. 'Hi you've been living in my head for a while now, and I thought it's time we had a nice chat, to get to know each other a little while you're inhabiting and, at times, possessing my body.' I don't think that's a great plan. But I got myself into this, didn't I? And squirming out of it, would only be worse. You should face your problems, not that he's a problem. I just want to talk to him.

But what am I going to say? I'm running out of time!

"Are you going upstairs soon Yuugi, I know you're only helping me work to avoid doing your homework."

Oh Grandpa, I wish that _was_ why I was helping you so much in the store.

"No! That's not it at all. You just, you're getting a little on in years, and I thought I saw you rubbing your back a little earlier, which obviously means it's giving you trouble, and I don't want you to have a bad back and back problems, so I thought I'd help you out." I scrambled out.

"Go upstairs now Yuugi."

Somehow, I don't think he believed me. Oh well, I can't put off this chat I asked for. Nope, can't just retract into the game store or hang around my grandfather. Use other people as a distraction, an excuse, a shell.

My hand traces the cracks of the puzzle again, as I absently make my way up the carpeted and creaky stairs to the upper half of our home. The soft green walls passing ignored in my sight as I approach my bedroom door, grip the brass knob, and enter my "haven".

Various Duel Monster posters are smattered on the walls in irregular places and not perfectly straight either. They may once have been straight. But when the blu-tack was still fresh they all fell off at one point in time or another, so I just stuck them up again. Guess I wasn't paying much attention and didn't really care. Hmm, It doesn't really matter anyway; I think they look better this way.

My floor is a softly toned blue, not like the sea or the sky, maybe one of those in between colours. I sometimes like to flop down on it, and stare at the ceiling. When I can find the room that is. Usually my floor is littered with books, crumpled paper and clothes tossed around like fruit salad, today it's remarkably clear. This could be one of those fortunate days where I get to lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling, feeling my eyes sink back into my scull. My bangs slide away from my face and I can see out of the sky light and gaze at the few brightly shining stars visible over the luminescent glow of the city.

However, if I'm to talk to mou hitori no boku, I had best lie down on the bed. That way if Grandpa walks in it looks as though I just went to lie down in bed for a while, and I my body wouldn't be stiff and sore. My bed still remains unmade from this morning when I had flung myself out of it and into some clothes so I could run to the arcade and meet my friends. I lead a hectic life, really I do. Who can expect me to be awake at ten in the morning?

I shuffle over to the bed, checking to make sure there are no potentially harming objects on it before catapulting myself on to it, bellyflopping with a phwump as the sheets stir and the springs groan in protest to this mistreatment.

My chest didn't hurt either. It's a peculiar thing I've begun to notice recently. When I fall face down, anyone would think I should've lost half my ribs or my stomach to the sharp edges of the puzzle. But it doesn't hurt me at all, it's like I never landed on a sharp, intricate, hard, golden, pyramid shaped shell.

Rolling over right side up, I breathe a little. I'm about to go in. I can feel mou hitori no boku, rustling in my hearts room, waiting for me. Alert to the knowledge that I just entered my room, at my home, the home I said I'd speak to him once I had reached, he had gone into my hearts room to wait for me.

Deep breaths Yuugi. In, out, in, out. Now close those eyes, calm down and leave your body vulnerable to any dark assailant to scramble through your window and use your body for violent…getting off track.

I feel my body jolt, and my spiritual body becomes the extension of my consciousness that I physically feel with as I find myself lying on a bed with a white canopy, and happy yellow sheets.

"Aibou."

Aibou. He always greets me thus. It's always aibou, partner. Rarely is it, Yuugi. Sometimes though, it's Hikari, or saviour, or master. But hardly ever Yuugi, not with mou hitori no boku.

"Mou hitori no boku." I reply, rising to a sitting position, then a standing position. We walk towards each other, a silent agreement to get closer, to talk.

So this is what mou hitori no boku looks like. He's slightly taller, slightly more muscular. That extra muscle is visible in his legs, as they move and shift within the confines of his black leather pants, hugging him closer than mine hug my legs. His arms flex slightly as they swing in a controlled fashion to the graceful swagger of his walk. His hair moves slightly as well, not so much the blonde strands dancing up through his hair and hanging around his face, longing to touch his perfectly formed cheek bones, but more his dramatic spike crown. It's pretty much identical to mine, spiking up in any direction, edges rusted from the sunlight, centre still black.

His eyes.

They were red. Like that of an unholy demon. Crimson beyond the blood that flows within my mortal body. Ruby red and glittering passively and sharply.

So beautiful. So intimidating, scary, dominating, incredible, captivating, piercing… so amazing.

"You desired to talk to me?"

Right now, there are a lot of other things I'm desiring. I'm trying not to think unhealthy thoughts right now. Thoughts that might damage my capacity for thinking straight or remotely logically. It's not working very well.

"Um…yeah."

His head tilts slightly to the side. I guess my answer wasn't that all great and he's waiting for me to continue. His eyes are querying me, face completely impassive. Oh man, I wasn't ready for this. Why did he answer me? Why did I ask in the first place?

"I-I just. I know I'm not alone, here in this body. And it-it seems strange to me that I don't know the other in habitant. I just want to, to talk to you."

… Awkward silence. He regards me with those eyes, those inconceivable eyes. I wonder what he's looking for. Is he breathing?

"Talk to me about what, aibou?"

Once more aibou. I want to see his lips form the word "Yuugi". Want to see him call me by the name of my birth, not the endearment he has bestowed upon me since I became his saviour, his "master". My body is his aibou, my soul is not. I don't know this spirit.

"Y-You call me aibou. You say that to me a lot, when you talk to me in brief moments. Why? Why call me that when I don't know you, beyond the feeling of your presence and the sound of your voice in my mind?"

He's thinking. I think he's thinking at least. He's looking at me again, and he takes a step closer to me. Soon he takes another, bodies so close I can feel the darkness of his energy rubbing against the light of mine. At this close proximity I can clearly make out every curve of his face and body. I can see the small defining lines in his eyes, the slight glint in one corner and the buried secret in the other. I can feel the heat of his breath.

He's breathing.

"You are half my heart, I am half your heart. You are half of my soul, I am half of your soul. When I inhabit your body, with my heart it becomes whole, but if I were to inhabit alone, it would still have only half. You are my aibou, and I am yours, as only when we are together will the heart be whole. Partners of the heart."

"Partners of…the heart?"

He replies simply with a regal nod of his head, face still impassive, unreadable. I wish I could be as unreadable, as undefinable in my expressions. Many people have told me I'm too open. It's not something I'm able to control so easily, as easily as he's controlling his expression.

I'm trying to make sense of his previous declaration. Before he came, before mou hitori no boku… I was half. I'm still half now. Isn't that what he said? Me, here, standing now. I'm half. Only when we both inhabit the body do we ever become whole. That's why he calls me his aibou.

So does this mean, this being standing here, standing before me in god like glory and demonic grace, is a part of me? But if he's a part of me…shouldn't I know… shouldn't I…

"Who are you?"

He looks at me as though I've asked the most ridiculous and out of the blue question under the sun or moon. At least that's how I read that look on his face. As though I'm the one being crazy. His eyes grow distant; he looks over my head, or maybe through my head, for a while.

I don't understand. How could the question be so hard to answer? His eyes seemed a little darker, completely unfocused and lost in the millions of stars and vast blackness of space. He isn't moving. There are increasing waves of awkwardness as moments pass, he's still staring.

I hope I haven't offended him. I hope I haven't done something terribly wrong. Things seem terribly wrong. Way to screw things up Yuugi. I don't know what to do.

"Mou hitori no boku?"

No response. What have I done! I only just met him, only got to see and talk to him for the first time and…and now look!

"Mou hitori no boku? Are you, are you o-okay?"

I move forward slightly, closing the gap between us just a little bit more. My trembling hand reaches out, quivering as I softly coil my fingers around his wrist, leaning in further still, I want him to respond. Maybe by moving closer I can, I can see what's wrong, maybe he'll acknowledge me if I'm closer. I don't know. This was a bad idea, a very bad idea.

"Mou hitori no boku? Mou hitori no boku?"

He gives a slight shake of his head and his eyes flick back into focus, resting upon my face and for a minute there is a slight fear in their depths that I could only have seen by being at such a close proximity, then it's gone and he moves back. My hand slips from around his wrist.

"A-Aibou…"

That pause, lost for a second. Trailing off unsure. This kind of voice doesn't suit him, doesn't fit the regal stride in his step, the courageous spikes flung back in his hair, the confidentiality and power resonating within his eyes. What did I do?

"I am sorry."

I reach out a hand, and grab his wrist again. I just don't understand. At the contact, something flares brilliantly in his eyes for a brief second. So loud and violent I couldn't tell what it was. He pulls his arm free with one sharp backwards tug, he's backing up, boots clicking. Then in a second he raced out of my room and back into the puzzle, back into his shell.


	2. Locked

Title: Partners of the Heart

Part: 2?

Author: SilverWing

Genre: Romance/angst/general?

Pairing: YxYY

Rating: Pretty PG at the moment.

Warnings: None. un-beta'd

Summary/Description: Yuugi is wondering about mou hitori no boku. Wondering just who is this spirit, living withing the golden incasings of the millennium puzzle. Some how he will know who mou hitori no boku is.

Doesn't take place in the series. Uses the Japanese names. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not, never have and more than likely never will, own Yu-Gi-Oh dies a little inside.

Authors note:

Silver: Well here's part two. There was a small interruption from the current drabble theme in here as well. With the colour talk later on. This time I wrote 7 pages!

Wing: Like oh my god wow sarcasm

Silver: Anyway, that's not the point. This is pretty cliché story to me, but I guess you guys will just have to live with it won't you. I hope you like it. And I have no idea just where this story is heading or how it's going to get there.

Wing: Tsk tsk, writing by the seat of your pants I don't know.

Silver: Psh, who cares. I hope you like.

Locked.

A day. Another day. Then another day. Then another day.

It's almost been a week, and I've run out of fingers to count the hours I've thought about mou hitori no boku. About his reaction within my hearts room, about our first conversation, the one I royally screwed up. If this was a duel for my soul I'm fairly sure, with the massiveness of that screw up, that I may have lost my soul after my first turn, then fallen on sharp pikes… many sharp, pointy, steel pikes.

I let loose another long sigh, desperate, agitated, weary, confused. A whole bunch of negative and terribly depressing emotions, floating on the breeze that had been expelled from between my lips. I really don't like those kinds of emotions. Maybe it's because those emotions aren't happy feelings and, as I'm a happy person, bad emotions just don't sit very well with my nature. They chafe at me like a hard bit between my teeth. Not only did mou hitori no boku retreat into his golden shell, but this time all the entrances sealed up after him. So it's not a shell like a turtle anymore, it's more like…an egg shell? No eggshells are too thin, his walls are thicker than that of an egg shell. I can't think of anything that the puzzle may resemble now, all those cracks but no entry points through them. He's completely sealed within there now.

…Maybe the puzzle is now like a giant stone tower without any windows. It has cracks like the puzzle, where all the stones meet together. And you can't get in, you can't see in, not to mention it's completely unassailable. I feel like mou hitori no boku is sitting at the top of that tower at the moment. I'm unable to see him, hear him, he's too far away but I still just know he's there.

Maybe another way to describe the nearness yet distance between us, would be being five cents short of buying that card that you've wanted forever…maybe… But the problem still remains the same no matter how many metaphors for my current predicament I can place to it. Mou hitori no boku has locked himself away from me, in his now completely sealed off shell. He's been in there almost a week without any sort of contact to the outside world, possession of my body included. What on earth would he do in there?

My hearts room is littered with toys, games and other amusing activity inspiring things. I doubt his room would be filled with the same, but maybe that's just judging a rather serious looking book by it's rather dark looking cover. Maybe there are games in there. Maybe if ever I gain entrance into the puzzle, into the dwelling place of mou hitori no boku, there will be games in there also. Probably not as many plush toys as my room, but a few wooden carved toys, maybe a few.

I don't know what caused him to retreat. Was it my touch? Did I repulse him or something equally as bad? Was it that question I asked? He completely spaced out when I asked him just who he was… then I grabbed his wrist and he snapped out of it. It must be contact with me that sparks something, that must be it. Maybe it was the combination, the zoning out, and the contact.

But he apologised.

Why was he apologising? Because he was about to run? About to leave? Was that why he apologised? I don't understand him, him and his unfathomable eyes. Those exotic, demonic, captivating, ruby red eyes…

He said that we are parts of each other, halves. So if you add purple and red together what colour would you get? What would the combination of our eyes be? What it be the true colour of the eyes of a singular person instead of the two halves that we are? Would that person still have my number of spikes or mou hitori no boku's, or half of the total of what we have?

Come to thing of it just who would the one person be? Would my grandpa love the whole person as much as he loves me? Would my friends still be friends with them? Would Kaiba still hold as much of a grudge and challenge him to as many duels as he challenges me? What would the personality be? What would be the colour of their skin? What would their voice sound like? Who would they be?

I'm digressing. Getting off track from my original thought. Trying to avoid it. I'm so obvious to myself. Am I obvious to mou hitori no boku?

"Hey Yug'? Are you gonna eat that last piece of pizza?"

"Huh?…no Jou, you can have it."

I chuckle, as Jounouchi's eyes light up and he pounces on the slice of pizza I had relinquished to him. Pieces of cheese, pineapple and ham cannot escape the black hole that is his mouth, the mighty Jounouchi, consumer of large amounts of food at high speeds.

Anzu once suggested we get him a crown made out of some kind of edible substance and give it to him for his birthday. Saying he was the crowned king of food eating. We decided that wasn't the greatest idea as he'd more than likely eat the crown. He eats anything. I also distinctly remember getting popped on the back of the head by said eating king while Anzu and I were discussing that Jou would truly eat just about anything. We were wondering if he would even eat a pair of edible underwear worn by Seto Kaiba. Jounouchi wasn't pleased by the comment that he probably would eat the underwear. He argued very loudly that there was no way in any reality we can think of, that he would even touch edible underwear worn by Kaiba, let alone eat them.

I'm still not so sure.

"Hey Yuugi! I just remembered! How did that talk with your other self go?" Anzu chirps. I can practically see the light bulb flashing above her head with the wave of sudden remembrance. Damn that light bulb.

"Uh…" Oh no! Don't panic Yuugi. Just relax, try not to think of how to harm imaginary inanimate objects, and try to think of a fast and reasonable answer. "Good."

I'm doomed.

"Really? What did he say?"

Damn you Anzu! Jounouchi's listening now, leaned in like he was last time we spoke of mou hitori no boku. Oh no, oh no, oh no. You see this is the problem with lying at the beginning. You have to continue lying else wise you get caught and they get even more suspicious of your intentions. Darn it all!

"J-Just," Don't stutter! "that what he did was necessary and, and he was sorry if I, sorry, if _he_ had distressed me."

Well that sounds believable, but that slip up in there. Well that could be explained as me remember what he said, and if he was saying it then it would be I not me. Yeah, that sounds like a reasonable enough explanation.

"Oh. Okay. He sounds like a pretty neat person. The few times we've met him that is."

You know, it's almost distressing that my friends have talked to mou hitori no boku more than I have. We share a soul, share a body, are never separated…except now. Separated by some great-unknown black mass. Something he knows that I don't.

"Yeah, he is pretty neat." I agree before rising from my chair. I just don't want to talk about him with these guys at the moment. That's all. One hand is already at my puzzle, his shell, tracing the cracks, the patterns and the curve of the eye at its centre.

"Listen guys, I promised grandpa I'd help him out today, so I've gotta get going. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah dat's fine Yug'. We'll catch you later."

"Bye Yuugi."

XxBack to the Mouto Home!xX

"It's your other self isn't it?"

I jumped. For an old guy, my Grandpa can be pretty sneaky when he wants to be. I don't know at what point he had entered my room, or for how long he was looking over my shoulder, watching me stare at my blank answer sheet. I had been sitting trying to do my homework for the past two hours, just staring at the paper in front of me, re-reading the first question over and over again only to hear the words "mou hitori no boku" repeated in my mind instead of the question.

"…mou hitori no boku…"

How my Grandpa is able to tell these things is anyone's guess as I turn to look at him. His eyes are sternly concerned and I can hear the efficient ticking of his mind. My grandpa always cares about my welfare, always. He's constantly looking out for me, making sure I'm doing okay, I'm not having any difficulties, I'm doing my homework and not failing school because he knows I can do well.

His eye's come to a conclusion as he finishes weighing things up in his mind. The act was probably as ritualist and important as when that strange Shaadi man had weighed the weight of ones soul against a feather on his Millennium scales.

"I know I can't take the puzzle from you." No, don't blame it on the puzzle. I feel the panic bubble up in me like lumpy and thick porridge clogging my veins and throat. "But I want you to remove it."

I open my mouth, ready to protest strongly that it's not the puzzle, I don't want it gone! I don't really have a rational excuse, a logical one but… I just don't want to loose it. It's so dear to me and at the very least I can somewhat protect mou hitori no boku by keeping it safe.

"Before you get upset, I don't want to you to take it off and lock it away forever. I just want you to take it off while you're doing your homework so it can't distract you."

Just while I'm doing my homework? Can I do that? Should I? I mean Grandpa is telling me to, so I really should. It's not like it'll be gone forever and it'd motivate me to finish my work faster but… I don't want to be parted from it.

I'm not sure this is a good idea.

"Please Yuugi. Just take it off while you do your homework. Then when you're done you can put it back on again."

It would feel so strange wouldn't it? I mean, there's a feeling in my chest that tells me not to be parted from the puzzle. It's this feeling that keeps it around my neck whilst I sleep, and while I bath even. I never take it off. Never. Would the puzzle even let me take it off?

"I…I dunno." I answer uncertainly. He knows I don't want to do this. But I have a feeling that it's going to end up happening. Mou hitori no boku…I would ask him if it's okay but he's sealed off completely from me.

I feel old wrinkled hands, settle around my own and I comply with what they're guiding me to do. The older hands move to my wrist as my hands settle and tighten around the chain the puzzle hangs from.

What will a few minutes do? I don't have much homework…

He guides my hands up and quickly lifts it off from around my neck. Though I was sealed off from mou hitori no boku, I can feel the tug as our link is ripped off my heart with a violent jerk. I let go of the chain and it falls into my grandpa's waiting hands. He carries it out of the room saying over his should that he'll put it on the kitchen bench for when I've finished my homework.

I swore I heard something just before the puzzle was completely removed from the room… probably my imagination.

With a long sigh I begin to try and solve question one, and can't help but mentally poke around in my innards. I feel slightly different from before. I can't believe how used to having that other presence there, how accustomed I was to the weight of the puzzle around my neck and the caress of steel.

As I get to question three, my hand reaches down to pet the puzzle as I usually do while thinking for an answer. It's something I've unconsciously developed. Some people bite their pens; others stare into the ceiling and tap their fingers, maybe hoping that the tapping would some how have the right frequency to be able to dislodge the answer from the roofing that's sure to be holding it captive. I, however, trace the puzzle with my fingers. Feeling the sharp corners, the delicate structure that never breaks apart when I fall on it. All the pieces I slotted together over eight years. I'm a little shocked when it's not there, awaiting my small fingers to give it some more warmth as I think.

I can't remember what I used to do before I got the puzzle. I tap my pen on my desk in agitation. I've got to finish these questions. I have to get my puzzle back, have to hold mou hitori no boku's shell. He's so far away.

Question twenty. The last question in a seemingly long and aggravating list of incredibly dull mathematical equations, that I've had the misfortune to being stuck with for homework. A growing feeling of discomfort has surged me forward the whole time. The maddening desire to have my puzzle, to hold and touch my puzzle again. To feel that presence in my soul, feel that completeness isn't so far away.

Throwing my pen down I make a mad dash for the door, skidding into the hall, down the creaking steps, jumping them two at a time. Stumbling through the hall to the kitchen. There it is glinting on the kitchen bench, beckoning to me. A great beacon of satisfaction. I admire my small burst of agility as a pant a little. I'm admiring my agility at the moment not my physical capabilities or otherwise health. I'm a gamer not a jock. I allow myself a brief moment to gaze fondly at the puzzle before plunging myself forward, bring it into grasping distance.

I snatch it up and quickly place it back around my neck. The world goes black as my soul is violently wrenched free from my body and yanked into my hearts room. I feel a little disorientated as the room is suddenly just there. I feel a little lost and while I try to gather my bearings as I've gone from standing to sitting in two completely different places in a matter of seconds. I look around at the glowing pale white walls and plush violet carpet. It's a little more orderly than my room in reality I note before my door flings open and suddenly my arms are full of a quivering mass of trembling muscles, cold and clammy skin, and a million whispered words.

"M-Master. I'm sorry. I'm sorry Master. Forgive me. Master. Please. My Master. I-I won't close you off again. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Forgive me. I'm sorry. Master, Master please. Don't send me to them again. Please…please."

It takes me a few moments to recognise that this body, that voice, and all this fear is radiating from…

"Mou hitori no boku?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please master… please…"

What did I do? I can't understand. I don't understand. I never understand. I look down at mou hitori no boku and gasp. Ugly purple bruising and sore red rashes in bands around his upper arms mar his perfect tan skin. The hem of his leather pants torn, and more bands are visible around his ankles. His arms are around me so tightly, so securely that I can also see his wrists bearing the same marks. If I didn't know any better I would say they were from fighting against cold iron shackles!

"Mou hitori no boku… what happened to you?"

He shakes more, panicked, afraid, still clinging to me as if at any moment I'll disappear.

"I-I p-promise," he's stuttering. Oh mou hitori no boku, don't stutter. What's wrong? "th-that I'll never run away f-from you again. I-I'll never b-b-block you again. I-I'll do what ever it is you w-want me to. Just please master. Please."

Not once an aibou. Never once has he said aibou, hikari or my name. Only master. Repeated innumerable times. Over and over. He whispers it and the words "I'm sorry" in jumbled combinations as he still grasps me closely, head buried in my chest. I think I can feel it becoming damp. Is he crying?

What on earth did I do?

He clings to me so desperately, so needily and yet he's afraid to be here doing this. His body feels tense with apprehensive fear as suddenly I establish just why his body is tense like this. He expects me to shove him away. He's waiting for the shove away back to the puzzle, and prays it won't come.

My heart clinches and out of the corner of my eye I see the walls pale to a blue. Mou hitori no boku, always strong, always assured and determined. His eyes and face impassive, a stronghold of emotional certainty and strength. This was not the mou hitori no boku I now held in my arms. This mou hitori no boku was the child pulled from the burning wreckage of his home, discovering that a stranger was the only survivor able to help him through the emotional devastation he felt.

"I'm sorry." I whisper sadly. I can hear it in my own voice. The regret of what I've done even though I don't know what it was. The trembling ceases suddenly, like a rabbit in a flashlight, he's frozen and we sit unmoving in time before he whispers an awe and terror filled "why?".

"I-I," great now I'm stuttering, "I don't know what I did, but it obviously hurt you a lot. I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. I never meant to hurt you."

He moves back slightly, and his eyes focus on mine.

They're almost black. Swirling so incredibly that they could never belong to a human being, never belong to anyone without magic in their blood. A vibrant passionate red, and a chilling, soul sucking black, swirling and clashing in his eyes in deafening and brutal emotional conflict. Beyond those, fighting for control were the solid impassive and piercing, red ruby eyes I know.

I gasp uncontrollably and he looks away afraid.

"Y-You removed th-the puzzle. You h-ha…" He couldn't finish the word. It almost killed me just to hear him almost say. His voice dejected and inert.

"No!" I yell and he flinches. "I don't hate you. I don't. I just want to know who you are. Grandpa told me to take off the puzzle while I was working 'cause I couldn't stop thinking about you. I didn't know what would happen… I didn't know what would happen to you if I removed the puzzle. What happened mou hitori no boku? Y-You, have marks, on your arms and ankles…what happens when I remove the puzzle?"

He doesn't look up at me, still hiding his face from me. He hasn't fully removed his arms from their place around me. Just making sure that I am still there, that my body is still there and I'm not going to suddenly vanish. That more than his eyes, more than his ears, are proving my existence.

"Th-The puzzle…Th-The shadows…. my saviour. W-Without you, when the puzzle is-is taken from you… I'm sealed within it again…in the dark… locked in the shadows. I don't want to go back there!" He yells suddenly, launching himself back into my chest again, hiding away his shamefully crying eyes and wailing lips. "Please don't send me to the shadows again master!"

Incredulity.

I look around the room again, noticing the door for the first time. When mou hitori no boku had abruptly tried to blow it off its hinges, it had been mostly open (though apparently not open enough for mou hitori no boku). But it wasn't so much the door that was incredibly interesting; it was the lower doorframe, and an area of floor before the door, that I found interesting.

There were gouge marks running along the floor and into the doorframe. Not too deep, just enough to be caused by human fingernails, frantic human fingernails. Suddenly it strikes me. That scream, before the puzzle was taken from my room. I thought I'd imagined it but it must to have been mou hitori no boku, screaming to me from inside my hearts room…and then dragged out from it, back into the shadows.

Poor mou hitori no boku. Are the shadows that bad to him? Is it that terrifying and horrible? Well the evidence was here, the sobbing man in my arms, the shackle marks on his arms, and now the desperate gouges in the floor.

I can't help but wonder what exactly goes on inside the puzzle. When you get locked within it, what does it do? What do the shadows do?

For all my speculations on the subject though, I don't ever want to find out. And I'm going to make sure I'm never parted from my puzzle, _ever_ again.


	3. Away

Unfathomable. That's what all this was to me. Things with mou hitori no boku went from fairly good to terrifyingly bad, ever since I contacted him and he actually replied. Everything's pear shaped, or in my case, pyramid shaped.

Yesterday I had been in my soul room trying to comfort mou hitori no boku for two hours. My Grandpa had come down for a glass of water and discovered my body lying haphazardly on the kitchen floor. Poor, poor Grandpa. He was so worried. I had the puzzle around my neck, and it appeared that I had just collapsed on to the floor (which I had) unconscious. He tried to wake me up, shaking me and calling to me, but I had been too far lost in trying to console the other half of my soul, that I hadn't heard him. Finally he tried to remove the puzzle, sensing that was the problem, well the reason I was passed out on the kitchen floor.

Mou hitori no boku had sensed it immediately. I remember with chilling detail the way he snapped upright and looked with frightened eyes over his shoulder back through my door and into the hallway that lead to the puzzle. I heard a peculiar sound coming from just beyond my doorway, and the shadows seemed to get darker, but it was the sound that caught my attention (and made mou hitori no boku shrink in fear). It was like the sound of a raven's wings, coming down in a foul swoop, wind gushing and whistling around blackest feathers, but not quite. It rattled softly in the cavity of my chest and inspired harsh waves of fear as my metaphysical body, went cold. It was almost like hearing the sound of death. If death had a sound, I imagined this would be it.

The rattling, swooping sounds became a little louder and suddenly I was no longer holding mou hitori no boku, suddenly I was not looking around the soft room of my heart. I was looking into the worried wrinkled face of my grandpa as he went to lift my head to remove the puzzle completely. As an instant reaction my hand snapped up and grabbed his wrist effectively stopping any motion. I think I scared him a little, poor grandpa. He let go of the puzzle, and I lay it back safely against my chest, cupping it in my hands and tracing the cracks.

I'm not sure where I go from here though. I chose two roads, two bad roads, now I had my next choice. I could choose another road or cruise along the straight road and into oblivion. I'm trying to find the road that will lead me to a better understanding of mou hitori no boku. The same mou hitori no boku who hasn't called me anything but master since that day.

That day was crippling to him, crippling to the small kind of relationship we had. The feeling of some equality was gone replaced with the echoing words of "yes master" repeated in a resignedly emotionless voice. Maybe I should try to talk to him again… just maybe I should extend a hand to him and hope he takes it up as one of friendship and not the hand that brought the pain of the puzzle onto his soul again.

I'll never forget that, and the marks made by mou hitori no boku, the marks on the floor and doorframe will never be erased from my room. If something happens in there usually I forget it, and it no longer has influence on my heart and vanishes. I'm never forgetting this. I want it there as a constant reminder of my terrible mistake. Maybe they'll fade a little over time, become less pronounced and at the forefront of my mind. Maybe they'll heal over like old scars and mou hitori no boku will call me aibou again.

I'm always talking about that word. Aibou. How I never understood why he called me that. Now I do understand and it's gone and I want it back!

"Hey Yug'."

I peek open an eye I hadn't realised I had closed and look over to Jounouchi who is sitting directly opposite me, the small hint of tomato sauce sitting delicately at the corner of his lips. A morsel of food to have escaped his mouth.

"Yeah Jou."

"What's up man, you seem a little…off."

"What Jounouchi means to say Yuugi, is that we've noticed you…staring off into space. You're really distracted and it's not because you're talking to your other self, because you don't wear the same look that you do when you are talking to him. So we were just wondering what wrong Yuugi. We know something is wrong so… won't you tell us so we can help?"

Is there really anything? I mean I lied to my friends at the beginning, and have kept up the pretence that everything is fine. I'm not so sure… I could just tell them about the puzzle incident. Maybe they could help me as to where I go from here, except I doubt they've ever encountered or experienced this sort of problem before.

But still… maybe they could help out a little.

"A-A couple of days ago I was trying to do my homework but I was a little distracted. Grandpa seemed to think that the source of my distraction was the puzzle, so he told me take it off while I did my work. I took it off and gave it to him and he put it in the kitchen… but something was off guys. I had this feeling, this weird feeling without the puzzle because my tie to mou hitori no boku was severed. When I'd finished my work I bolted down the stairs and got my puzzle back. As soon as I put it on I was pulled into my hearts room… It was terrible guys. I didn't realise what me being separated from the puzzle would mean to mou hitori no boku." I shook my head dismally as I remembered.

"He was angry with you?" Anzu and Jounouchi had leaned in again, and Anzu had tilted her head a little with the question. Her face was somewhat eager, how she wanted to listen to what had happened was written all over her face, Jounouchi's too, but their was a tint of disbelief in her features as though she didn't really believe that mou hitori no boku could get angry. I'm not sure if I would have rather had him angry with me, than the complete mess that had catapulted into my arms.

I shook my head. "No. He wasn't angry at all."

"'Den what was 'e?"

"Destroyed." That was the best word to sum it all up. The only word I could think of when I saw mou hitori no boku that day. Completely and utterly destroyed. "When I opened my eyes in my hearts room I was sitting on my bed. The door banged open and suddenly he was there. He ran at me and wrapped his arms around my waist, hiding his face. He-He was crying, and he kept repeating the words "I'm sorry", "Forgive me", "Please," and "Master" over and over again. He just didn't stop. Every second word was master. He only changed words when I asked him a question. I asked him what had happened. He said it was the puzzle." Unconsciously, my hand reached down to rest around the puzzle, sharp corners not hurting my soft skin. "He said that when the puzzle is removed then he gets drawn inside it again, locked in it. It must be terrible in there guys. He had, had bruises on his upper arms, around his wrists and ankles in band shapes, from fighting against shackles. And when I looked around my room, there were… claw marks, on the floor…from when he tried to escape it and had been dragged out"

My head sunk until I was looking at an interesting grain of salt on the bench. It hurt to remember and say it out loud, hurt to relive it and see mou hitori no boku staring at me with emotion-ridden eyes. All that turmoil rushing around them in an outrageous argument, for dominance over his being.

"Wow Yug'. Ya mean that guy was actually crying?"

I nod.

"Poor Him. So what do you think does that to him? I mean every time we've seen him he's always so strong and self-assured. The last time we saw him he was fighting away some weird guys with knives. I think they were trying to mug you or something. But he never even flinched or faltered." Her voice is a hushed whisper, filled and brimming with disbelief. I knew my friends didn't completely trust mou hitori no boku, and a part of me softly told me that they thought that I had developed a split- personality disorder from being so nice all the time, but they still had concern for him.

His well-being often was linked to my well-being.

"When I asked him, he just said it was the puzzle, and the shadows…but…but now I don't know what to do guys. He just keeps calling me master. He used to call me his aibou, and occasionally he dubbed me as his hikari, but now its only master. I don't know what I can do."

They exchanged glances. My second senses tingled. Jangling and jiggling like sled bells in the back of my head was the way they stared. The way their faces were drawn into similar expressions… they had been talking about me. I know it wasn't paranoia, I know for a fact I don't have paranoia, at least not enough of it that I suspect my friends to be plotting against me behind my back. No, this wasn't it. They had been talking about me, about me and mou hitori no boku. Probably out of concern for me and my mental well-being. Maybe they thought I was crazy, but I don't think they could deny the magical happenings around mou hitori no boku. They couldn't. _That_ would be crazy.

They had obviously been in previous discussion about circumstances as they were, without knowing this new information. But once more it was obvious to me that the conclusion they had reached together hadn't changed with this new face of mou hitori no boku that I had let them in on. Maybe I should have kept this to myself, and figured it out myself.

"Yuugi…" Brace yourself Yuugi, here comes the bombshell "Maybe you should… well…"

"What Anzu's trying to say Yug' is dat… we think that maybe you should ya know… take the puzzle apart."

"WHAT!" Outrage. Fresh, wild, and insanely consuming surged through my chest. If I had been expecting anything from my friends it wasn't that. Especially after what I had just told them.

They winced and flinched away a little, with their eyes.

"Is just dat, Yug' that guy is dangerous. That puzzle is dangerous! And well, we're not saying that the magic doesn't exist or nuthin' but it's sus Yug'. All dis Black Magic and Penalty games, maybe it's messin' with ya head. Maybe your other self don't exist anywhere but in ya head, and the puzzles magic is just making things worse. It's bad Yug'. We think you should remove da puzzle, take it apart, and lock it away."

I was limp in my chair. They believed in the magic, but they didn't believe in mou hitori no boku. They though that the magic of the puzzle was messing with my mind. But… no magic could simulate the feel of my hearts room. Simulate mou hitori no boku's life, his eyes, nothing! Nothing about him! He saved them! He saved me! And they just think he's me when magic goes to my head! I can't believe it… mou hitori no boku…

"Yuugi. We know you're upset but if you take the puzzle away and disassemble it, it won't be able to work any magic on you. Then you'll be able to see that it's just fooling around with your head to make you believe that there is another you. This story about your other self when the puzzle was removed. It's just another way that the puzzle is trying to manipulate you. Yuugi you've changed. You don't pay attention to anything, you're shying away from us, your friends, and you're becoming distant. If you take the puzzle away and you still believe that there's another you living in your head, then we can, we can get you help. It's just you're doing violent things Yuugi, dangerous un-Yuugi things and you seem to be okay with them."

Doing violent things? Mou hitori no boku is just protecting me, protecting them. As a general rule I'm not okay with violence, doing violent things but… Jounouchi fights so is he insane? No he's just being Jounouchi and everyone is okay with that. So why is mou hitori no boku fighting any different from that. I mean, mou hitori no boku fights fair and always with just cause, not on whims or just at an insult to him or his pride.

Could this have been made worse by that lie I told, about the conversation I had with mou hitori no boku? That I had just talked to him about what had happened prior to that day, he had explained it and I was okay with it. Was that what had got them concerned, that I said that I was okay with him hurting people. People who do deserved it, but still people. If I hadn't told them that, would they even be saying this to me?

No that's a stupid thought, they would have been thinking about this before then. Would have been having these doubts still. They make it sound as though I'm crazy. Is that what they believe? That I'm crazy?

I can't believe this. It's all so unbelievable, so indescribably insane.

"I can't believe that you'd, that you'd believe that. Believe that I've cracked and have this split personality. Mou hitori no boku, isn't just some creation of the head. He's a real person, he was a living breathing person like you and I! And you want to send him back into the puzzle, lock him away after what I just told you happened to him last time. What he was reduced to in those few moments. It took me eight long years to solve the puzzle, and when I solved it I could feel how grateful he was to be free. And now you're asking me to lock him away again! He saved you and this is how you want to repay him?"

"Yuugi it's not that-"

"No!" I cut her off. I've never cut her off before. Never cut either of them off, always valuing what they were saying. But I couldn't value this! "I can't believe you'd ask this of me. Knowing what person I am, asking me to do this to him. He's not an illusion by magic or by mind, he's a person. Now what kind of human being would I be if I would let another person be locked into torture! I thought you understood that, and I never thought that you'd promote this kind of thing either. I thought I understood you two as well. What you're asking me to do is beyond cruel. I refuse to ever take this puzzle off! I absolutely refuse to disassemble it!"

Before I knew it I was standing outside. Feet braced against the pavement. I had left a disorientated Jounouchi and Anzu behind me, sitting at a table in the mall. How could they say such things?

I wasn't sure what I was feeling at them moment. Wether I was angry, upset or some other disastrous emotion. Whatever I was feeling it was overwhelming. I wanted to scream but at the same time I wanted to curl up into a ball and cry. I knew I couldn't head back to the game shop, that'd be the first place they'd look for me. I knew I couldn't go to the arcade and I wasn't in the mood either. I needed some time away from them, away from heat so that I could think about things calmly. So I decided to head to the one place I could be "alone". The park.

XxThe ParkxX

The grass here is greener than I remember. The trees a little softer to lean against, and the foliage is much more dense. My mind is still tumbling. Distracting away from the problems. Everything is getting worse and worse. Mou hitori no boku, my friends. All going down.

There's a gentle nudge to my heart, a wave of gratitude and thankfulness. Mou hitori no boku's sign of comfort. I'm a little touched and can't help the small smile.

'Mou hitori no boku…'

'They wanted you to put me away again, my master. They wanted you to take apart the puzzle. And you refused them.' Another wave of happy gratefulness. 'You refused your friends, whom you love so dearly, so I didn't go back.' A mental smile. Warm, and so pleasing.

After throwing a few cautionary glances I smiled and slid my eyes closed, preparing to enter my hearts room once more. Where I was currently seated, no one ever came around, and if they did they would see a boy taking a nap against a tree in the warm afternoon sun. I felt the jolt as I became a physical representation of myself in my soul room.

When I open my eyes, I'm opening them to the sight of pale red and blue walls. I'm sitting on my bed, propped up against my headboard canvas sheets rustling softly in a non-existent breeze. A representation of my unrest.

"Mou hitori no boku?" I call out, sure that I can feel his presence nearby.

"Master."

His voice is so nice, and soothing, and so unlike the voices of Anzu and Jounouchi, it makes it easy for me to forget the things they said. He walks over to me with his proud leopards stalk, his hips shifting gracefully as he moves. So perfectly balanced on his feet. He lands lightly on my bed, perching and looking over to me.

His eyes are clear again, no fierce clashing of emotion. No inner turmoil. Just the clear, controlled, pristine eyes in a demons ruby red. So perfectly beautiful and sinful. I love his eyes. At the moment there is readable emotion in them, gratitude, thankfulness and joy. Not in great leaping amounts but they were there. Soft and twinkling in his eyes, like crisp morning dew drops on the extravagant petals of a rose.

"Thank you, my master. Thank you for being so kind to me and not obeying the desires of your friends. Thank you for caring about me, my master."

More masters. I used to have a slight problem with the way he always called my aibou instead of by my name. Now I'd be glad if he called me, hey you. I've never dominated, I don't like that powerful position, I don't believe in it. Master makes me feel like a tyrant.

"Please, mou hitori no boku. You don't have to call me Master. I don't own you. You aren't my servant. You're my partner remember? We are partners of the heart, you and I. Two halves of the same whole. I am your aibou, not your master. Remember?"

He leans in closer to me slightly closer, head tilted in consideration. His eyes seemed to glow and block me from reading his emotion, though I knew that he was rather pleased by the declaration I had made. It made my chest tingle slightly, the thought that I had pleased him, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see the pale blue in my walls begin to fade away a little.

"Thank you… aibou."

A smile rushes up into my face. He called me his aibou again! I was so elated at such a simple thing. But maybe it wasn't a simple thing. The way I had worded what I had said, I made sure I never told him not to call me master, I just told him he didn't have to. So by him calling me his aibou, he sees me as a partner again, not a master. I can't believe how undeniably happy this was making me. After the terrible thing I had done, he was able to call me aibou again!

Without control of my body, with my thought running a tangent to my actions, I move closer to mou hitori no boku and secure my arms around him in a hug. In a few uncertain moments I feel his arms move and settle around me. I'm safe here, safe in here with mou hitori no boku. Away from the accusations of my friends.


	4. Inside

Title: Partners of the Heart

Part: 4?

Author: SilverWing

Genre: Romance/angst/general?

Pairing: YxYY

Rating: Pretty PG at the moment.

Warnings: None. un-beta'd

Summary/Description: Yuugi is wondering about mou hitori no boku. Wondering just who is this spirit, living within the golden encasings of the millennium puzzle. Some how he will know who mou hitori no boku is.

Doesn't take place in the series. Uses the Japanese names. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not, never have and more than likely never will, own Yu-Gi-Oh dies a little inside.

Authors note:

Silver:

Inside

I was always really good at contemplation. I contemplate a lot of things. A thinker not so much a doer, though I can do, I only do when necessary and there's no time to think. That sounds right. So contemplating isn't a difficult thing, thinking is a relatively easy task. What I'm thinking about however rarely ends up with a great answer or resolution to the problem I'm pondering. This time, like many others, I didn't come up with a straight up answer to the problems. But I did categorise them according to their size and importance.

In order the problems are:

The new problem of my "friends" thinking I'm on the verge of being raving mad.

The true identity of mou hitori no boku.

My class assignment for Geography due start of the next term. (What on earth was "Uluru"?)

Organising the storage room for Grandpa.

Figuring out the meanings behind the reactions I have towards mou hitori no boku and my overall opinion and feelings about him.

I have placed that last problem as the last problem, because let's face it, what teenager wants to think about trying to untangle their feelings and opinions? I'll avoid and postpone that one, as honestly, I don't really want to think about it for fear of the resulting conclusions. No matter the importance, I will procrastinate.

Now the solutions.

What on this plane of existence could I do to make my beloved friends believe I'm sane, mou hitori no boku exists, and destroying the puzzle, slash, taking the puzzle away from me, would be a very _very_ bad idea? Should I just let them believe what they want and see what they do? Let them make the next move after I clearly stated my case before I ran out of the mall two days ago?

I hadn't heard from them in two days. It was the holidays so I didn't bump into them at school either. Avoiding contact with them wasn't really going to help my current predicament with them, but it seemed like a good idea. Calm down, set out the priorities… So who ranks higher in my care factor?

Mou hitori no boku? The mysterious spirit of the puzzle. The partner of my heart, my opposite, and my balance. The other half to my soul, and the one without a name as of yet?

Or was it my friends Jounouchi and Anzu? Anzu a childhood long friend, training to be a dancer, usually supportive, promotes friendship and caring. Jounouchi, recent friend, seemingly semi-brother to me. Loud, arrogant in an amusing way, bottomless pit of a stomach, as loyal as a faithful dog to his favourite master…

Master… that word makes me shudder.

Thank all the stars above the mou hitori no boku had stopped calling me that. I hate that term, that status, that title. It's just so overpowering, so completely tall and looming. I'm not like that at all, and I hope I never am. That title to me just feels so isolating, and after so many years in seemingly never-ending loneliness, I never want to feel isolated again.

So who was it then? Who was more important? Was it really fair to rank them against each other like this? Anzu and Jounouchi seemed to be forcing me to choose between them, but I really didn't want to. Mou hitori no boku respected them as my friends, ones to cheer me up so he never had any rivalry with them, until recently when he had seen how their comments had upset me. He wasn't pleased with them for that.

This is all so confusing. I think my brains going to explode and create pretty psychedelic patterns all over the inside of my skull, and possibly on the walls should some shoot out my ears or nostrils… that would be rather painful I think. Shooting pieces of exploding brain out of your nostrils… ouch.

I let out a long, tedious and stress relieving sigh. My chest just feels so tight recently. Argh, so many problems. Why can't I just roll over and die?

I snicker slightly at the sudden calamity of emotions and shocked outrage that patters against my mind. I guess mou hitori no boku took that a little too literally. I reach out and assure him that it's just a phrase, I didn't mean it really. He calms down a little and I can't help the chuckle that bubbles from my lips. Sometimes mou hitori no boku reminds me of a child. Just a tiny bit. The way in which I have to explain some things to him, the way he reads my thoughts as solid literal ideas and plans of actions sometimes. Anything from me he takes at face value as honesty, pure honesty with no sarcasm or anything other than intended meaning. Other people he questions a million times over before letting them walk close to me.

It's an endearing trait of his. My friends weren't ever that protective. Well sure they were a little protective of who I talked to, keeping an eye on people they thought looked really shady. Mou hitori no boku kept an eye on everyone. It was kind of sweet. His care and concern for me were very real, and very tangible when he seized control to force me away from danger.

Wait… I was drawing away from my original problem. I must stick to my list. And first up was the friend problem. My skull was splitting, what should I do?

Nothing?

…Actually that didn't seem like to bad a plan. I should let them decide. I said all I wanted to. It's up to them now… I'll go talk to Ryou tomorrow. He may be able to help if Anzu and Jounouchi haven't gotten to him as well. Speaking of Ryou, I haven't seen him in quite a while. I feel a little lousy, for not keeping in regular contact with Ryou, or sparing him much thought. He's always seemed like a nice person, it was the rumours that weren't nice. His friends in coma's millions of miles away.

I kind of pity Ryou, but I know that a lot of people don't like to be pitied. I myself don't like it one bit, and I have a feeling neither does Ryou. He must be awful lonely. Okay, adding to my to-do list, is getting to know Ryou a little better than I already do. Visiting him tomorrow seems like a good idea. Not to mention he's a rational person, well at least he seems like one to me.

Not on to the second problem.

Who is mou hitori no boku. This problem seems to be a plaguing one, and as I worm further in I just find I've missed the core and come out on the other side. It reminds me of a riddle my grandfather once asked me when I was little… how did it go? Oh yes:

"How far can a dog walk into a forest?"

It had taken a little pondering before the answer to that riddle had flash struck me. "Halfway. Halfway because once it passes halfway, it's heading out of the forest."

In searching for mou hitori no boku, or just who he was, I ran head long into a forest. When I saw the end in sight, I tripped and stumbled only to find I was just on the other side of forest and had missed him somewhere. At some point I was running away from him. The way back through that forest now, seems a little more crowded by plants, and I realise a couple of thorns have found their way into my clothes and are scratching at me.

That almost seems like the perfect analogy of my problem, don't you think? But that doesn't bring me any closer to the realisation of its answer. I could try speaking to him again; ask him just who he is. But I'm worried I'll spark a similar reaction to what happened last time. With my friends doubting me, I wouldn't be able to stand mou hitori no boku's absence from me. I don't want to be alone. Not again.

I'm paranoid about that. About being alone again. Now I've tasted sweet companionship, friendship, loyalty and the crisp happiness of having peoples trust, I don't want to give it up. I'm slightly possessive over it. Over and over again, I don't want to be alone.

With a deep sigh I rise from my seat at the desk, staring at my problem list doesn't help me at all, so instead I fling myself at my bed. Unfortunately I hadn't looked before I had leapt and managed to slam my head into a stray text book. Those things are so darn _hard_.

Groaning I push it off my bed space and lie face down on the sheets. Grumbling.

What to do, what to do.

"Yuugi! Anzu is here!"

Oh gosh. Anzu!… did I just think oh gosh? You know… that's kind of funny. But still, problem remains. ANZU IS HERE! What am I going to do? I don't really want to talk to her while I'm prioritising. Lying face down on my bed, maybe I could feign sleep? Yeah, that sounds good. Maybe I could vanish inside of the puzzle, well at least my hearts room. I'm not as rude as to impose myself into mou hitori no boku's shell. Not until I learn his name. I'm not even sure his door would open for me actually… I don't remember if I've ever tried.

I freeze at the sound of the squeaking staircase leading to my room.

"Just head on up Anzu."

"Okay!"

No, no, no, no, nooo.

Don't just head on up Anzu, head right back down.

"Yuugi?" There's a light tapping on my door, and at receiving no response from me, the handle jiggles and my door groans open with the same cheery disposition I possess at the moment.

"Yuugi, I'm sorry for what we said, back the mall two days ago." Hoping for an apology, understanding. "But… it's just as we said. We're worried about you, and I know you're not sleeping."

Damn! How could she tell!

"Sleeping people usually breathe."

…oops. I was trying so hard to hear I had stopped breathing, damn I hated when I do that. I turn my head to the side, completely found out.

"What I told you hasn't changed Anzu. I'm still shocked you could say that about him, about me too."

"We're not saying it's your fault, blaming you or anything. These things are uncontrollable."

"You're just calling me touched in the head. Either by dark magic, or by myself."

"No. Well, sort of. But Yuugi-"

"No! No buts, Anzu. It's the truth isn't it? You think the puzzle is doing something to me, or amplifying what was already there!"

"But Yuugi-"

"What did I just say about buts?"

"Fine! That's what we're saying Yuugi. But you can't deny it! There's something wrong with you!"

That hurt. That started the crack. That started the pain. That phrase. "There's something wrong with you!". She, She said that. It was like being slapped with some kind of pitchfork, or even a spade. It made my head dizzy, my chest clinch. So hard to breathe.

Suddenly I was face down on pale white sheets, echoing, glowing blue walls pulsating with each despondent beat of my aching heart. I could smell lavender in the pillow my head was buried in. Filling my mind with a sense of calm, trying to appease me. There was a touch of cinnamon in there as well, and also the scent of mou hitori no boku that I had managed to secure to my memory when I had hugged him two days ago. My own mind was trying to soothe me by manifesting these scents into my sheets to offer me comfort. I also thought that a little of mou hitori no boku had done this. Probably created the wish for the scents to comfort me to appear in my hearts room. Though I wondered if he knew what the scents were. Well whether he did or didn't it was pacifying nevertheless.

"You!" The voice seemed a little far away, but distinguishably Anzu's. I could still kind of hear what was going on outside, what my body was hearing, and if I closed my eyes, vaguely what I was seeing. I was getting use to being possessed by mou hitori no boku so that I maintained awareness to the outside, we joined and shared as true partners should.

"You are causing my aibou, much discomfort Miss Anzu. I respect your position as a friend of his, but I cannot ignore that you are distressing and hurting my beloved master. I ask you please to leave as I do not see it fit that my master should have to flee his own home as he did at the mall."

His voice was completely business. No room for misunderstanding or negotiation.

"I want to talk to Yuugi, not you! And I won't leave until I have spoken to him!"

Stubborn, and foolish.

"No. I will not permit that. You are upsetting him! You are hurting my beloved master, and that is something I will not permit. He deserves nothing but happiness, and what you are telling him is not making him very happy at all. I am sorry Miss Anzu, but I must insist that you leave now before I have to use other means to _force_ you."

I can't help but think, that if I was Anzu, I would be afraid now. There was nothing but willingness to back up the threat in mou hitori no boku's voice as he spoke. Same businessman tone, but this time it was edged with severe promise.

"I…I'll be back, later." Shuffling footsteps. Clever girl.

"Thank you Miss Anzu. I know my master values your friendship and holds you dear to his heart, I would hate to have to do anything to harm you in anyway and upset him. I ask that you do not sadden him further in the future and not to yell at him. I do not take kindly upon those who yell at my master and hurt him so. Good-bye, Miss Anzu."

Mou hitori no boku…

Face still in my pillow, slowly easing as my tears wane slightly, but at the words mou hitori no boku had spoken, I can feel them springing back into my eyes again. It hurt in such a good was that he cared so much. I'm a little disappointed in his reference to me as master, but he doesn't call me that to me, when speaking to me he refers to me as aibou once more. Master is the term he uses when talking about me, informing everyone that I am more important to him than he is to himself, the roll of master outweighing any other position other people may believe to own.

I can hear him at the door to my hearts room. He had probably guided my body back to bed, allowing it to coil itself in the sheets in mock sleep as he came to check upon my will being.

"Aibou?"

I sniffle a little, trying to compose myself a little better, even though it's not really necessary. I know he can sense my feelings. He can feel that I don't mind that he enters my room, but still he cares to ask.

"M-mou hitori no b-boku." Stuttering, it haunts me so.

I can hear the slight swishing of his pants as his thighs brush together as he walks, his feet skimming the carpeted floor with ghostly grace. There's no groan in my bed as he perches himself beside me, sitting next to me on my body. I can feel an uncertain hand rest on my back as though he's trying to comfort me but is unsure how to do so.

It's almost a little amusing but, I'm not really in the mind state to pick it up and chuckle a little.

"I'm sorry aibou. Because of me they think there's something wrong with you, and you may loose two of your valued friends because of me. Maybe it would have been best if you hadn't solved the puzzle…"

"D-Don't say that." I choke out. Raising my head from my nest I look at him dead in the eyes. His eyes are a little fogged by a sense of guilt, concern and an untranslatable emotion, but otherwise they are the clearly controlled eyes that I always associate with him. I can feel a conviction forming words for my mouth, straight from my heart without going through the process of filtering so I don't say anything regrettable. Unrestrained desire to tell him, explain to him. "I'm glad I solved the puzzle. If they are so unable to trust in me, maybe they're not the friends I thought they were. I would rather give them up, then you up. From the moment I solved the puzzle you've been there for me, and I'm so happy and grateful to have been the one to find and solve the puzzle."

His eyes show some slight confused disbelief. Almost like a kitten that has been told that water isn't wet at all.

It's a little sad that he can't believe that I would care about him like this, like he cares about me. That I would give up my friends for him. I had said that hadn't I? Okay, well go back up the list, to problem number 1 and scratch it off. I have now reached the answer.

Problem:

_The new problem of my "friends" thinking I'm on the verge of being raving mad._

Solution:

It doesn't matter what they think. I don't care about what they believe if they can't trust me on this. I wouldn't ever give up mou hitori no boku for them, he's more important to me. Especially if they don't trust me. I would choose mou hitori no boku over them if they're going to force me to.

Now I only have 4 more problems to go.


	5. His Shell

Title: Partners of the Heart

Part: 5 of ?

Author: SilverWing

Genre: Romance/angst/general?

Pairing: YxYY

Rating: Pretty PG at the moment.

Warnings: None. un-beta'd

Summary/Description: Yuugi is wondering about mou hitori no boku. Wondering just who is this spirit, living within the golden encasings of the millennium puzzle. Some how he will know who mou hitori no boku is.

Doesn't take place in the series. Uses the Japanese names. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not, never have and more than likely never will, own Yu-Gi-Oh dies a little inside.

Authors note:

Silver: Man I'm sorry this took so much longer than the others. This is actually version two. The MASSIVE RE-WRITE

Wing: It really is a massive re-write from what we had.

Silver: Yes, and school interfered also. So I apologise and Hope you enjoy this chapter.

His Shell

The list of problems hasn't diminished any in the past three day's. Anzu hasn't come around to call since mou hitori no boku told her to get out for upsetting me. I'm going to treasure that moment in my memory forever. Not because it was Anzu getting told to go away, because I really do like her, just because of how much I could tell that mou hitori no boku cared about me. I mean I always knew he cared about me, I'm his host body, but now the care was more than just protecting the shell, it was protecting the soul too.

A happy, giddy little sigh passes my lips. That felt a little too school girl like for my tastes, but I couldn't help it. I'm feeling a lot happier now, since that awkward moment in my soul room, when mou hiroti no boku came to comfort me. I haven't really heard from him since then. Nothing of any importance to him has been happening. I went to visit Ryou though. That has been the highlight thus far.

He was so painfully polite, observant as well. I bet he'd make an excellent gamer. He has the opponent analysis skills required, not to mention I bet he could look really scary if he wanted to, or just frightening cute and sweet. He's great with advice, but sometimes he makes me feel a little sad for him. I told him about my problem with Anzu and Jounouchi at the moment, he already knew a little about mou hitori no boku somehow. He said he didn't blame my friends for thinking it might be a split personality, because if I had ever seen mou hitori no boku during one of his shadow games, you would think it was me completely cracked. He thinks that if they are really serious about wanting to be my friends, they will come to speak to me about it sooner or later, probably sooner. They would make an effort to persuade me, or be persuaded themselves.

I feel a little like I used Ryou, and before he gave me his piece of advice he warned me "Don't put too much but what I say Yuugi. My advice when it comes to this might not be ideally helpful, I haven't had that much experience in dealing with friends.".

Right there, in that sentence, I realised how few friends Ryou Bakura had had. I've now taken it on board as my duty to become one of his best friends. He's such a great person I can't believe how easily he is over looked. I over looked him a little as well. So I'm a little guilty also. Mou hitori no boku says I shouldn't feel guilty for the past and embrace a present and future. He say's that like he knows, a piece of advice once given to him, or he's followed himself… hmm I wonder.

I wonder about mou hitori no boku a lot still. I still so much desire his name, that I think I might be going a little crazy for it. Pursuing the dream like a bloodhound. Maybe he really is consuming my world like Anzu and Jounouchi said he was. Maybe… they said I was growing distant, star gazing a lot, but not because I was talking to him, but rather thinking about him. But he's just so fascinating. The spirit in the puzzle, hiding away in his secret shell.

"Yuugi? Yuugi are you up there?"

"Yes Grandpa."

"Yuugi are you okay? You and the gang? I mean I haven't seen or heard from Anzu and Jounouchi since Anzu fled the store three days ago."

"Mrph…" I mumble letting my face collapse back into my pillows.

"Oh that important eh? So you want to tell me what's going on?"

"They, they think I'm crazy." A rustling from mou hitori no boku, as he stirs. Feeling the beginnings of my emotional upheaval. It still hurt, as I think about what she said to me.

"Anzu said, there's something wrong with me."

He's thinking. His head is bowed in reflection, carefully working it over. Planning out the best course of action was why he was my grandpa and cared about him so much. I'm not saying I wouldn't care about him if he were a drunk in a back alley that abused passing children verbally from his squalor, just that I loved the way he thought. He didn't just mindlessly comfort me, he did comfort me but with fact, reason, and other such methods. He didn't say anything he didn't mean and hadn't thought through. That made everything he said all the more valuable.

"Yuugi. Some people might think that there are many things wrong with you." He said, not unkindly. He smiled and ruffled my hair. "You're too nice, too forgiving. Not common traits now-a-days. You've got all the innocence they wish they had. But I suspect that they were talking about the other you when they said you were wrong."

I nodded.

"People fear change and what they just don't understand Yuugi. What they just don't understand is your other self. You see, they see things as easier before he was here, so the change that's happened isn't good to them. You've changed as well, and they don't want that. They want the old Yuugi. So they search for a way to explain it away and understand. Find a problem they can solve that will get you back to the way you were before this change. Mental illness is easier than believing that there's another soul in there with you, and acts as the perfect scapegoat. It's something they can explain, something they can understand, and more importantly, something they can "fix". Actually it's not surprising that they came to the conclusion you had a split personality. Especially when he seems so different from you, almost like you had cut yourself in half and these were the two opposite personalities."

I nod again. Grandpa just makes so much sense sometimes. It's scary. Well he's making sense when he's not laughing and calling me and my friends a "bunch of young Turks". I don't understand that phrase very well. Turks? Do I appear Turkish?

"Heh he. At least they accepted the existence of the magic of your millennium puzzle. At least that's something, but don't worry Yuugi my boy, it'll all turn out okay. Just be patient. You'll just have to wait for that incorporeal being called time, to work it's magic to make them understand."

He petted me reassuringly on the back, and shuffled out towards the door of my room, leaving me to mull over his hopefully helpful piece of advice.

Time.

I have admitted I hate time. I'm not very good at being patient on a few occasions. I couldn't wait for mou hitori no boku to tell me who he was, I had to ask. I couldn't wait for him to stop calling me master, I had to nudge him. Nope. No patience whatsoever.

With a sigh I curled my body over and closed my eyes, hoping to retreat to my hearts room, filled with all the comfort and unrecognisable familiarity that I loved. Filled with everything that makes me, me. The soft glowing walls reflecting my mood, a sullen blue flush tainting the usually healthy white. The plush carpet, so soft beneath the soles of my feet, was slightly worn in the corners. When I was here, if I wanted to I could watch my memories, like movies on the screen projected behind my eyes.

And more importantly, in here I could talk face to incredible face with mou hitori no boku. And here I am again. Thinking about him again. I wonder if he knows my thoughts? He must think I'm some insane obessesor, and I may just be. But he is too interesting not to think about, so intricately complex, locked away inside his shell. His eyes so fascinating, so captivating in their unholy demon red, that I can't really think anything but the truth while he's staring at me. I'm sure he'd see through any lie, and I won't insult him by lying either. One thing I can say that is definitely good about my friends is, they didn't lie to me. They don't believe me, but they didn't lie about, though they had played pretend before.

Hmm… playing pretend. I always used to do that as a kid. I still do it now, although I'll admit, I do it a lot less now and on a smaller scale. When I was a kid, I always used to pretend I was someone else. In the safety of my room, with only myself to shatter the dream, for a while I'd pretend I was a hero. I'd wear a cape, spring off my bed and land on the floor in a pose that I'd seen in many of the manga's I'd read. But I never wore a mask. I wanted everyone to know, I wasn't just the weak Mouto kid. I was strong, and just, and people should look up to me because I can help them. I wanted everyone to know what I was capable of, so they'd be my friend, so no one would tease me anymore. Then grandpa would knock on the door for dinner; the cape would be put away, and I was Yuugi Mouto, trying to solve a puzzle that was infinitely difficult. The reality would return. Just like it was there when I walked the school and kids picked on me, didn't want to be friends with me.

I let out a long sigh. Thinking these things isn't very good for the overall morale. But at least I don't pretend like that anymore. I'm a little afraid that I'll pretend I'm that person, and pretend mou hitori no boku away. I know it's silly and childish, but… sometimes, since he came it's like this isn't the reality and I just haven't changed out of costume yet. It feels like the movies. Like I've stepped out of reality for a while. Good god I hope not. If I woke to find this a dream, including the problems, then I think my heart would ache so terribly, it would break on the spot and I would die.

There's a new concept. Without mou hitori no boku, I would die. Heh heh. No I'm not dependant on him at all. I am very strange aren't I? I wonder… I wonder if mou hitori no boku knows what I'm thinking and feeling. Well I could always ask. I could see him again as well. It's always a treat to see mou hitori no boku. To study him and try to piece together a little more. Whittle away at the list of problems that doesn't seem plausible any more. I think mou hitori no boku, and my feelings concerning him and who he is, should be stepped up in priority.

"Mou hitori no boku?"

'…aibou?'

"C-Can you please, join me in my hearts room? I would like to speak with you."

No answer.

I can only assume he's coming. I wonder how big his soul room is and how far inside it he was. How big could it be, residing inside a puzzle swinging around my neck? It could be any size really, anything is possible with magic and mou hiroti no boku.

There's a gentle tapping on my door, gentle is funny word to use in describing an action by mou hitori no boku. Precise would be a better word, but sometimes, he is a little soft. Mostly in my hearts room is he soft. Maybe all the plush things in here are having an effect on him…that's a funny thought, mou hitori no boku the teddy bear.

"You can come in you know mou hitori no boku. I asked you to come here, so you don't have to knock."

The door swings open, gently. Not like the time it had been hurled open by a sobbing and fear filled mou hiroti no boku. Not opened like it was before he left those scratch marks on the floor and doorframe.

"I apologise. You wanted to speak to me aibou?"

He strolls in calmly, regal postured and calm impervious face and eyes. I look to the side. I hope he doesn't find my question silly, or pointless, or a waste of his time.

"I-I was just wondering. Can you hear my thoughts, or sense any of my feelings mou hitori no boku? When I'm not sending them on purpose?"

"Yes. I can sense your feelings aibou. But only when they are strong negative emotions, like fear, or sorrow. Other than that, you're privacy is retained aibou, I do not want to intrude myself into your personal thoughts and feelings."

…I wonder where he learnt to talk like that.

I know it's a terribly odd time for this to hit me, but he talks with a strict kind of formalness to his words. It makes him seem more regal than he already does with his presence alone.

"Thank you…When I feel these things, that is when you take control isn't it?"

"Yes. The puzzle, with my magic, allows me to sense these things without you sending them to me, so that I might intervene and protect you, stop the person who is doing you harm."

"Stop them… how mou hitori no boku… I mean I don't remember what happens, but Anzu and Jounouchi, they have seen the conclusions to some of your battles… what did you do to them?"

This question had always mystified me. From the moment I saw Ushio (the first bully to have encountered mou hitori no boku) playing in the leaves, laughing greedily yelling "money", I have always wondered. The penalty game… the shadow games…

"I punished those people, for the wickedness in their souls that they might dare try to hurt you, my beloved master and my aibou."

There was a vengeful glow in his eyes, which scared me a little. I recalled how my friends were concerned about me, with this other person they have seen that is my exact opposite, and I understand why. I remember the story Jounouchi told me, about how he was being beaten by some members of the old gang he used to run with, and I came along, mou hitori no boku seized control in the danger. He saw me get hit, and then they electrocuted him until his eyesight was fuzzy and his conciousness was barely even there. He said that there were a lot of grey patches. But he remembers "hearing d'ohs bastards screamin' long and hard" then having me there picking him up off the ground after untying him. He said, my face looked dirty, like I'd been punched, but I couldn't feel a thing. The rest of the gang arrived and we helped Jounouchi out of the building, and we passed them. They were all passed out in a pool of muddy water, some of them steaming slightly, and there was a lingering electrical crackle on the waters rippling surface.

I shiver.

His eyes seem to lose that vengeful glow, and the emotionless façade is back in full force. No sign of anything, but in the corners are secrets, and hidden behind his black iris is a trace of fear.

"Do my actions frighten you?"

Do they?… now that was a fairly good question. My moral beliefs objected to the violence, to hurting others. But my grandfather always taught me that you shouldn't try force your beliefs on others. So what should I do? He's the other half to my soul, my balance, and my partner. So, he should be what I am not, that's only logical, and he can't fight what he is… and I, I like him, for his personality, and liking him means I accept him, which means everything.

"They do frighten me a little. But I'm not afraid of you mou hiroti no boku."

His eyes soften. They glow slightly as well, taking up that unhidden space behind his black irises. They loose the doubts and fear that he had kept and I could see the sudden dazzling difference my words had made, the effect they had achieved was booming at me through his eyes. Though still as prohibited as they were, as illusive to his emotions, they still glowed like the red of a bleeding sunset.

So magnificent.

I reached out, and placed his hand in mine. His eyes seemed to shrink a little, or widen a little. One of the two. They just moved subtly. I wondered why, but that can wait. His hand was soft in my own, slightly hardened but not rough and calloused. It was invitingly warm and I liked the sensation of it resting in my own hand. Odd little man aren't I?

"And I still stand by what I said before. I would rather give up my friends then loose you." I was surprised by the conviction in my voice, and to back up my claim, my hand tightened around his.

"Aibou." His voice seemed to come out as a sigh.

"I still don't really understand though, why you protect me so."

He contemplated a thought. A heavy one. One with a million different impacts, like raindrops on the cement. I could see in his eyes, that he was considering something that was a big deal. He thought in a way that reminded me of my grandpa. The clogs churning and turning to reach a resolve, to try and find the best answer, not just an answer.

Squeezing my hand in his a little tighter, he makes his choice.

"Come with me aibou." He says turning his back to me and moving to step towards his room. I follow. Matching his elegant strides with my own unconvincing walk.

We head out my door and into the corridor I'm somewhat familiar with, there's not much too it. An echoing hallway, hard grey brick walls and floor. Then there was mou hitori no boku's door. The door to the puzzle. The door to the shell, his shell. It seemed to be stressed with veins, alive and almost foreboding in it's presence. Certainly not an invitation to venture close to it.

The anticipation, anxiousness, apprehension and other jumbled emotions are just killing me! I was going to see inside the shell of mou hitori no boku, another clue as to who he was.

He reaches, settling his hand around the doorknob, twist, pull, and it grinds open.

My room is much brighter than his. His room is musky, old, like a tomb. Sandstone, granite, solid rocks, steel doors. A completely mind boggling maze. It's an utter labyrinth. Doorways, stairways, upside down stairways, passages in so many millions that looking at the entrances and the upside-down doors makes my head spin. His room is just as pieced and impossible as the millennium puzzle in its tortuous design. This was it's interior to the small (okay not that small but still) golden puzzle currently resting in my physical bodies hands as I lay in my bed. I could hardly believe it.

He kept his hand firmly in mine, tightening his grip a little, perhaps afraid I would wander and be lost inside the puzzles maze. He began to guide me over countless sets of stairs, through doorways and down passages. His pace somewhat brisk, as though he was in a hurry to get where he was going, like something would get him in the gaps in between.

Suddenly we reached a room and as he closed the door firmly behind us, he relinquished his grip on my hand.

This must be his room. His room inside the puzzle…

It was similar to all of the puzzle, musty and dark, cold floor and walls. Every surface made of stone. There was a light scent in the air that wasn't quite the scent of mou hitori no boku, but of things that may represent him, all dusted with the musky dullness of infinite age. The only piece of furniture in the room was a chair, more like a throne. It was cracked slightly at the top with what seemed like age, greyed with it too. It was fairly plain in appearance as well, no intricacies to its design.

I left mou hitori no boku's side, to go and look at the walls, I swear I saw something glimmer. Out of the corner of my eye. It was like a ripple of icy blue shivered across the wall in a thin layer. But then it was gone, so I decided it would be best to investigate, unless mou hitori no boku stopped me.

He didn't, so soon my footsteps echoed in the stony and cold room and I reached the wall to inspect it at close proximity.

It looked like there were a few elegant patterns in it, which seemed to glimmer beneath the surface like the hidden traits of mou hitori no boku. The patterns in the walls seemed a little colder in their places than the places that were blank of them. The spell to form the puzzle, bind mou hitroi no boku to it, the magic, the life… was cold.

"H-Has it always been like this?" I ask, voice stricken with awe.

He shakes his head. "I don't know." I throw him a puzzled look over my shoulder. It doesn't make any sense. Why wouldn't he? It's his room. "I've only been able to see it, since you solve the puzzle."

I gasped.

"When you put together the final piece, the light of your soul flooded my room, melted away the chains of my imprisonment, and chased back the shadows that feasted agonisingly on my soul. Before then, my room was black. I couldn't see anything. I was completely blind and restrained in such a way that all I knew was that the floor was paved in stone. Hard and bitingly cold. I didn't even know its colour, the colour of the walls, what they might be made of, if the walls existed at all." He turned his face away from me. Hiding his eyes behind his golden bangs.

"Trapped in the puzzle, I forgot warmth, forgot light, forgot colour, forgot sound, and forgot the engaging tangy scent of sweet things. I even forgot what I looked like. The shadows sucked it all away from me. I existed in this abyss for three thousand years. You rescued me, and that is why I do what I do. That's why I have to protect you, to repay you for giving me all this back. That why I punish so severely, I don't deny that being trapped in the darkness for so long, might have played on my sanity, but I just, I want to protect you. More than anything. If not just because you saved me from a lifetime of existing without purpose, existing without anything. But because you are my aibou, my other half to my soul. The partner to the piece of heart I posses."

It was at this moment I realised, that as I had walked from my door, and into here, I really had stepped inside his shell. I was past the barriers, past the controlled eyes. I had walked past it to see with unhindered eyes, mou hitori no boku. See inside his shell.


	6. Reaching out

Title: Partners of the Heart

Part: 6 of ?

Author: SilverWing

Genre: Romance/angst/general?

Pairing: YxYY

Rating: Pretty PG at the moment.

Warnings: None. un-beta'd

Summary/Description: Yuugi is wondering about mou hitori no boku. Wondering just who is this spirit, living within the golden encasings of the millennium puzzle. Some how he will know who mou hitori no boku is.

Doesn't take place in the series. Uses the Japanese names. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not, never have and more than likely never will, own Yu-Gi-Oh dies a little inside.

Authors note:

Silver: Well it's that time again. Update w00t!

Wing: We hope you enjoy this chapter, although we do seem to be slipping away from the description, let me assure you we have no idea what's happening in this story, we don't know the next chapter, but we'll get a name out of mou hitori no boku some how.

Silver: That's like trying to bleed a stone. I have a funny feeling in my…left hand though, that there will be a little more explaination about why dearest mou hitori no boku is so… jumpy about when Yuugi grabs his hands and why he ran out that first time, and locked himself away.

Wing: We'll try keep them in character. Until then.

Silver: Enjoy the next chapter!

**Reaching out.**

_A friendship is only as strong and the friends it's made out of._

Hm, how true that statement is. Friends, my friends… I'm going to meet them today. They called last night, after I was safely escorted out of the puzzle by mou hitori no boku. I had to be escorted as he informs me that there are sometimes stray beasts of the shadows wandering around, and the shadows themselves are always looking for someone to play with, so I shouldn't be there unaccompanied. That said I don't know how he can sleep there! Knowing there's shadows and monsters lurking outside his door! And speaking of sleep, there wasn't a bed in his room, just that…throne.

I offered him my room to sleep in, but he just smiled and said "maybe someday.". His smile was warm, and almost kind of whimsical too. Maybe he can't leave the puzzle for extended periods of time. Hmm…

I pulled my sneakers on and waved good-bye to Grandpa as I headed out to the park. My friends and I had agreed to meet up in the park and have nice and calm conversation about this. I just hope they don't rile me up or anything. After the warning mou hitori no boku gave Anzu, I'm a little concerned that if they really upset me and then yell at him, something bad'll happen. Hopefully, the only time that'll occur is in my head with my brilliant imagination. But, if things get too bad maybe I should just wander off so mou hitori no boku can explode some rocks or something. There are so many uncertain factors in this equation that the only way to find an answer is to step in the middle and watch what happens.

I pull my coat tighter around myself as I enter the park. It's over-cast, the sky grey and the winds cold. I like this kind of weather, when it's hot here, it's really hot, so I tend to like the cooler months. Not so much winter, but autumn and spring. The changing seasons.

My heart speeds up a little and thuds extra hard against my chest as I spot my friends sitting on a bench waiting for me just ahead. Anticipation for what's to happen next, the unsureness I can feel, the uncertainty in the moments ahead, all buzzing in my mind.

"Hey Yuugi."

"Hey Guys." The answer's just so natural. It comes so easy to me, like an in-built response.

"So Yug', uh… how ya bin?" Jounouchi asks, licking his lips a little with nervousness.

"So so. Just talking with mou hitori no boku about things." Yes that was deliberate.

Anzu's breath takes a sharp increase for a second, and Jounouchi pauses for a breath. I know it might sound strange, but I'm going to force them to talk about this. I would rather not play the dancing game of avoidance of the real problem. I really want to just settle this.

"Oh." Anzu replies intelligently. "What did he say?"

"Nothing much, just answered a few things for me."

"Oh." Another great response.

"So, are we going to talk about this? I mean… I haven't talked to you guys in what seems like ages. Have you changed your minds?" I just want to know. I can't stand the anticipation, the waiting for this inevitable conversation to happen. Sooner is better than later.

They look over at each other. Assuring each other they've got the same answer, the same conclusion, that their agreement, their final reasoning, was the one they were going to say to me. That what they were about to say was still true to both of them.

"We, we haven't changed our minds exactly Yuugi." I can feel a flare of anger spurt into my chest, as well as sadness. But I smash it down to let them finish explaining. There was an "exactly" in there, why is there an "exactly" there?

"Were still kinda disbelieving of da' whole other soul thing. But we're gonna keep an open mind about it ya know? We're not gonna say 'dat it's one thing or another or anything like 'dat. We'll just leave it be eh? Ya know? Just kind of…I dunno, not think about it."

So what they were saying was that they didn't believe mou hitori no boku was another person, that he really was another soul inside me. But they weren't saying he was just a mental disorder either. They were basically saying, that they want to just ignore him…. I'm stuck between being glad for the compromise, and raged and upset that they refuse to acknowledge his existence after all he's done for them!

"I…" I don't know what to say. I don't know what feeling to let out, the glad one or the kind of outraged part. Why'd they have to make this so hard? "I… so you just want to, ignore him?"

"That's not what we're saying Yuugi."

"Oh yeah, then just what are you saying?" I think my slightly angered and upset part is winning.

"Just that, we don't know what to make of this other you. We won't ignore him, just reserve judgement on him."

"Judgement?" I think I'm almost ready to be unrealistic now. "Why do you have to judge him? Can't you just accept that he's here? He's not some figment of my imagination, not the magic of the puzzle playing tricks on me. He's my other half! He's the other half to my soul, the other half to my heart. He's my aibou as I am his! We are partners of the heart, partners to the core and soul. He's like a part of me, and the way you plan to treat him, hurts my heart too." …I think I came out a little too obsessed, dramatic, and a bit more forceful than I had wanted to be.

They stare blankly at each other, wondering what to do. They had taken for granted that I would just agree. I'm usually such an agreeable sort. Will they blame this on the puzzle, on mou hitori no boku?

"Yuugi…"

Her voice comes out as a kind of plea for me to understand them. Understand them, when they can't understand me. I may be being unreasonable, but this is deathly important to me, and unless they acknowledge mou hitori no boku, stop upsetting me about him, than it'll become deathly important to them too. I'm not insinuating that he'd kill them if them ignoring him angers me but still. I have the sneaking suspicion that he wouldn't be very happy.

"Anzu, Jounouchi. You said you believed in the power of millennium puzzle, why is mou hitori no boku any different?"

"We…I." Anzu tried as I stared at them both. I'm not sure what they would have seen in my eyes. What shape they were, what colour, what emotion was flashing through them that they could see.

"Yuugi. Dat' puzzle… we've seen it's black magic, it drove Ushio and a lot of others insane. How do we know 'dat it ain't affectin' your mind also?"

"Because mou hitori no boku couldn't be some mental illusion because he lives in the puzzle! If he was an illusion in my head made by the puzzle he'd be in my head, but he's not!" Oh yeah, let's see them beat that logic!

"The puzzle made 'im up! And fooled yer' head inta belivin' that he lives in it so you wouldn't wanna get rid of the puzzle!"

…Touché Jounouchi, touché.

That would work, but… that can't be it. I know it, I can feel it. Mou hitor no boku, you're not just some mental illusion. I know it. I know he's not!

"But I can feel him! He's real! Inside my hearts room he's solid and real! When he talks to me it's not my own voice, and it's not even close to my own thoughts, they couldn't be the puzzles either as it has no consistent thought to it! Stop denying it and just accept the truth. He saved your lives! He saved my life! The least you guys can do is acknowledge he exists and stop telling me I'm crazy!"

I'm breathless now. My emotional torrent of words seems to have stolen away all my breath. They're just staring at me now, and I feel like I want to just walk away, that I'm never going to change their minds.

"Yuugi…we…" Come on, speak Anzu! Oh gosh, I'm seeming rather violent aren't I? Well I'm frustrated okay! "We don't want to hurt your feelings, we don't want to upset you, but he's… the other you, he's not like you at all, he's just so scary."

My grandfather's words echo in my head.

"People are afraid of what they don't understand" 

"He wouldn't be so scary if you tried to get to know him!" I retaliate. "And until you do get to know him, you just have to take my word or it that he exists and he wouldn't ever do anything to hurt me or anyone else, unless someone was trying to hurt me. All he's ever done is protect me and help you guys, what's so bad about that!"

"He's changed you, ever since he came you've been different! Staring off into space, not paying attention to anything!"

I though that was a bit extreme. I do play attention a lot, but as soon as I'm not, they assume I haven't for ages! I can feel mou hitori no boku shifting slightly beneath the surface of my skin, sensing my agitation and the swell of aggravation, anger, hurt, confusion, frustration, and a whole other host of emotions, none of them pleasant, growing large.

They were just angry 'cause it wasn't all about them! I always depended upon them, and now with mou hitori no boku I'm more independent of them, I don't cling to them so much, not so afraid of being alone because I never am. Again my grandfather's words flash back.

"People fear change… You've changed as well, and they don't want that. They want the old Yuugi."

The old Yuugi. The one who was afraid of everyone? The one who was bullied when his friends could see? The one who depended on them so desperately for companionship though he tried not to show it? The one who liked to pretend he was someone else? I don't like that person. I like the change that's happened. How I'm not as afraid because I know mou hitori no boku will always protect me, even if I only just recently realised that he'd protect more than just my body because he needs it, but my soul as well because he cares about me. Even if I don't know who he is. I trust him. But my friends want the Yuugi they had to protect, but I don't want to be that Yuugi anymore!

"I do pay attention Anzu. Just because I'm not continuously paying attention to you then it doesn't mean that I'm not paying attention to anything! I like how I've changed. I like being this way instead of afraid and meek all the time!" I think I nearly growled, but I didn't. I'm not that… emotional yet.

They have no response to that. They're completely lost. With an un-happy sigh, I realise that we aren't going to get anywhere with this right now. So I slowly turned on my heel and began to walk away. Usually when I was in an emotional tiff I'd go to my grandpa, more recently I think I would go to Ryou Bakura, and talk to him. Hear his softly accented voice filled with words of wisdom and offering comfort that was real. But instead I'll go to the one place I feel completely safe.

Xx Back at the humble Mouto Household xX

I'm quite content nuzzling the pillows of my hearts room. They smell perfect to me. Just the right mix of scents to offer comfort. I chuckle lightly at the thought of becoming an addict to this smell and rushing back to my hearts room to get a quick hit. That would be kind of sad, but funny.

Tap tap.

"Aibou?"

Mou hitori no boku, approaching me again. This is the second time that it's happened. That he's started; he's made the first comment. This is good no?

"Yes mou hitori no boku?"

"May I enter?"

He still somewhat cautious about me. Careful not to upset me in anyway. That time when I pulled off the puzzle is probably very fresh in his mind still. The scars on the doorframe and floor haven't faded any. He's still a little cautious that he'll upset me, making him a little less commanding and dominating, and maybe a little more on the shier, softer side.

"Mou hitori no boku, you don't have to ask. Come in."

The door creaks open, and he steps inside. I'm not sure what to expect. I'm lying face down on my bed, I feel it sink a little as he sits behind me, and feel that same uncertain hand on my back in an unsure gesture of comfort. It's hesitant, almost asking if it was okay for him to be touching me. I sigh appreciatively, so he can hear it and I feel the hand relax against my back, and I do rather like the feel of it resting there.

"You were talking with your friends today." Statement, not a question.

"They still don't believe in you. It just… they frustrate me like that sometimes. They expect me to understand them when they don't want to understand me or you."

Silently, he understood. Hand resting on my back, he understood every emotion shifting and slipping through my eyes. He had known everything I had been feeling while facing them.

"I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble aibou."

"You're no trouble to me. I like having you here with me mou hitori no boku. I only wish I knew who you were a little more. You deserve your own name."

"…I'm proud to be 'mou hitori no boku' to you."

I'm touched.

Out of the corner of my eyes I can see the sullen glow in my walls begin to lift slightly again. Mou hitori no boku… he always makes me feel so important, special, and well, like I'm here. Then again he can't very well ignore me, I do own the body we share. That sounds strange. Owning something that's shared… well I'm the original inhabitant, and well… I guess I do own the body, but we share it, if he wants to use it then he can… yeah, he can use it…Eep! BAD THOUGHTS!

I'm going to completely abandon that train of thought. Right…now. Phew, when did things like that start happening? Oh well, it was just a casual observation… yeah.

Let's think about my friends shall we? I guess until they believe me we're going to be at a loss. Well, I will be with Jounouchi and Anzu, not with Ryou though. He's still completely understanding, so maybe we'll do something later this week. I get the feeling he doesn't get out much. I wonder why mou hitori no boku is tanned when he lives in the dark…

He's proud to be mou hitori no boku. Because we're partners? Partners of the heart? Is that why? Because I saved him from the darkness of the puzzle? His Hikari. If I am the hikari, and we are opposites, then he must be the…

"…Yami."

The hand on my back twitches. I don't know wether the twitch was recognition, dislike, hatred, fondness, from the words relation to shadow, or what. I can't see those controlled eyes of his either. I wonder why he doesn't tell me his name. Why he wants to remain mou hitori no boku. I don't really understand at all… Maybe he can't remember! Wait! That's what he said. The darkness stole all his memories away! What he looked like, and of course his name! I'm lying face down on my bed so I can't see him, but I'll remedy that.

I roll over, and I feel his hand glide over me, unmoving from it's place as I move bellow it. Soon I'm on my back and the hand is settled over my heart, though I don't think it bothers him, and I know it doesn't bother me.

"Mou hitori no boku, you can't tell me your name because you've forgotten it haven't you?"

He turns his head away, his hand twitches again. Have I struck the truth or just hit a nerve?

"…I can't. I wish I could so that I may answer your question. But just because I don't know my name, it doesn't change what I said before. I am truly honoured to be 'mou hitori no boku' to you. For if I'm the other you, then some of the light in your heart, might also exist in mine. I am proud that you may consider me another part of you."

Wow… just wow. Years of darkness, and you feel apart of it I suppose. He does seem dark, with his demon ruby eyes, stalking panther glide across the floor, aura of foreboding power, and flicks of danger with every twitch of muscle. The mystery he exudes from the pores of his skin. I am his opposite. So of course, I'm none of those things, far to honest, open, though I'm not all pure. If you look at the symbol for yin and yang, there is a spot of black in the white and a spot of white in the black. There's no absolute purity, that would disrupt the balance too much. So there is darkness in me, and a light in him.

Part of each other. Partners to the core. Just as he first explained, partners of the heart. I smiled at him, and he smiled back at me with no malice gleaming in the whites of his teeth. Before I knew it I had my arms around him in our second hug to have happened, warm and inexplicably happy as I felt him relax, and his arms slip around me in return.


	7. Beyond the Barriers

Title: Partners of the Heart

Part: 7 of ?

Author: SilverWing

Genre: Romance/angst/general?

Pairing: YxYY

Rating: Pretty PG at the moment.

Warnings: None. un-beta'd

Summary/Description: Yuugi is wondering about mou hitori no boku. Wondering just who is this spirit, living within the golden encasings of the millennium puzzle. Some how he will know who mou hitori no boku is.

Doesn't take place in the series. Uses the Japanese names. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not, never have and more than likely never will, own Yu-Gi-Oh dies a little inside.

Authors note:

Silver: Otay, now I'm kind of concerned that I'm creating fodder for Anzu haters here, or that I'm in danger of being classified as such. I'm not. The reason I'm writing Jounouchi and Anzu out like this, is because I'm trying to demonstrate how they might feel or a more kind of natural response. I mean, Jounouchi would really reject the idea because he's terrified of ghosts and cares about Yuugi, and it's hard to be close to someone who has a "ghost" inside of them when you're terrified of ghosts. Anzu, really cares about Yuugi, and this is what her concern causes, not to mention she's sort of over protective and maybe even slightly possessive, she also strikes me as completely grounded, down to earth and everything. She may believe in magic but she always struck me as a practical one, and when the practical is exhausted she goes extreme, but I don't think she'd be fond of spirits in her best friends head. Rather easier to have something you can help with, something you can explain and seems plausible.

Please don't forget, everything is from Yuugi's Point of view, which means as with all first person narration stories, the narrator themselves are unreliable. Everything you read is subject to the bias of what Yuugi may believe, he may be barking up the wrong tree entirely, and because you're reading it from him, you'll be subject to his bias. I'm not saying that he's being completely wrong, just that signs can be misread and because you only hear what Yuugi thinks and sees, if he's misunderstood you'll misunderstand too.

So I'm not trying to make Jounouchi and Anzu the bad guys, not at all. They're good guys, concerned about their friend and trying to help him in the only way they can acknowledge. Last chapter, with the whole incident, the confrontation, I may have made them seem a little…well not great, but Yuugi was upset and angry at them because of his unconscious emotions towards mou hitori no boku, and just how frustrated he can become.

Wing: wow, that was a long Author Notice.

Silver: Sorry, just had to clear that up. I mean because I'm a little concerned I'll start getting Anzu bashers "w00t" mail and get Anzu supporters "What is your problem?" mail.

Wing: Okay then. Well on to the next chapter!

Silver: Yup Yup Yup!

Beyond the Barriers.

Sitting over a cup of tea, in Ryou's lounge room, things seem better. His home is soft and conservative, basic, and simple. His walls are a soft colour, almost a pale pearl colour with a slight tint of blue. They don't radiate warmth, but they aren't cold either, almost a mix, almost familiar. He has a few paintings and pictures on the wall that don't really catch the eye, more like wallpaper than anything, but once you start to look you realise how beautiful they are. There's a picture of dolphins bow riding at the front of what must be an enormous boat. A small portrait of a beautiful lady, done in a mix of what looks like chalk and pencil. There's one of an ocean and it's fairly well painted. Very well painted actually. In fact, the more I stared at it, the more it seemed the waves were about to spill out into the lounge room and that the birds were about to launch themselves free from the frame and squawk around in a cluttered mass of beaks and wings. It was a very nice painting to be fair, but the frame looks a little worn. It doesn't look like the print of a painting either, so that must be an original. It might have cost a bit if it was.

"Hey Ryou, who's that picture on the wall done by?"

"Which one?"

"The ocean landscape one, it looks kinda old."

"Oh… that one… was done by my mother, quite some time ago. It's not really that old actually, it's just the frame is second hand."

His eyes are downcast, I feel like I just stepped on his foot rather severely.

"Oh, it's very nice. Did she paint a lot?"

Why I thought that asking about that could help rectify the situation is completely beyond me. It just felt like the right kind of question to ask, and as Ryou's eyes lit up a little and he smiled with sheepish pride bubbling at the edges of his face, I feel that maybe it was the right thing to say.

"Yes, she used to paint quite a bit. A lot of them got sold at galleries, but," a soft smile broke out on his features, and his eyes gained a faraway kind of glaze, "I made her leave this one. It was my favourite."

I smiled at him. It seemed like the right thing to do, he was just gazing into a dream and smiling fondly at the painting on the wall.

"That's her over there." He said unexpectedly, pointing at the portrait I had looked at before.

"She's beautiful. Did she draw it?"

"Actually no. I drew that one."

I looked at him in surprise. I don't know why it surprises me so after I've seen the artistic talent that his mother possessed. He did also strike me as more an emotional, passive, artistic type of person. A knowledgeable reader, or possibly an emotional introverted novelist. Definitely not an outdoor sports person.

"My mother was trying to teach me the finer points of drawing, and I managed to con her into letting me use her as a subject. That was my first real piece of drawing. She was so proud she got it framed." A whispered smile, and a glimmer of glowing pride. "My little sister used to make the joke that she only did it cause she was vain and mum looked so pretty in that picture. But she looked beautiful like that all the time to me."

"It's very good. She looks very beautiful."

"Thank you."

I don't want to ask where his mother was, or show my surprise that he had a sister. I knew that his dad was currently digging in Egypt, an archaeologist, but I had never thought to ask about his mother, or if he had any siblings. I don't really feel that I should ask now though, the subject, just talking about it seems fragile, and the way Ryou kept talking about her, was like she was gone. It was a tone and a set of phrasing I had found on myself when I was talking about my mother or my father also, though not quite like this. I wondered if they were dead.

"So Yuugi, how have things between you and the others been going?"

His voice is so…comforting and it gets you to want to talk. It could be a useful trait to a counsellor or someone like that, a social worker, although I don't think Ryou could be that scary.

"Not so well. I went and talked to them a while ago, about mou hitori no boku, but… they just wanted to ignore him sort of… I kind of lost my temper a little and got frustrated. We kind of had a little argument about it, but I don't know. Until they acknowledge him, I feel like there will always be this kind of divide, but they won't concede. They just don't want to know he's there as a separate being."

"Well I don't suppose there's much you can do about it. You can't force people to believe something, but I'm sure they'll come around eventually. If they don't, maybe they just weren't meant to be your friends, although I highly doubt it. You guys used to be inseparable, I'm sure they'll realise just what's going on soon enough and accept that there really is another you who's another soul entirely."

Ah, Ryou's sweet logic. It's very similar to my grandfathers actually. But, I can understand my grandpa's acceptance of mou hitori no boku so quickly easily. He knows a lot about Ancient Egypt, he knows about the curses and magic, the nameless pharaoh, the power of the puzzle. The inscription of the box said that that he who should solve it would gain the knowledge and power of the shadows. And I did, but I don't own the knowledge, I just host the being who does, so it's still fulfilled. Anyway! Grandpa understands all that, but Ryou… he's completely different. I hardly know him and he just accepts it and talks about it like he's known forever.

"Ah…Ryou? I'm curious, but my other friends are really worried about mou hitori no boku's existence, or what I say about it. But you just completely accept it without hesitation. I don't mean to be rude but…why?"

He cocks his head at me, eyes gazing at the ceiling briefly, as he considers his answer. His white hair bounces slightly with the motion, the bangs brushing his forehead as he moves, brown eyes focused on something distant but there's something that looks a little like concealed panic and fear in his eyes. He's nervous about the question, almost afraid maybe, but he's hiding it exceedingly well. I'm almost glad for all the times I've tried to figure out what mou hitori no boku is hiding in his eyes, Ryou's are easier to see into, they're more expressive even when trying to conceal something.

"Well… let's just say that, I've had my own run-ins."

His answer is careful, and it's the truth. I can't imagine Ryou would be a very good liar, he could be, but there's something in his nature that is honest, I think. But I may be completely off on that, but for the moment, there's no mistaking the honesty lurking in his eyes. His answer is illusive though and non-committal.

"Okay."

I'll accept that as his answer for now, but eventually I hope he'll trust me with a full answer. I wonder though, I guess I'm always wondering.

"Hey Ryou! Did you hear there's a new movie out down at the theatre! It's supposed to be really good! Did you wanna go see it with me?"

Xx At the humble Mouto Home xX

I shuffled around my room; looking for that precious list I had created some time ago…well it feels like some time ago. Hmm, I wonder where I could have put it, lots of things turn up in my sock drawer or in my shoes for some reason, but unfortunately it's not there. I rummage around the piles of leather, jackets, jumpers, pants, shirts and other miscellaneous items in the bottom of my cupboard, searching pockets but to no avail. Where on earth could I have put it? Damn it all! I lost it! Guess I'll have to re-think the list. Okay then. First let's try to determine the top of the problems, ay Yuugi?

Okay First…Friends? Mou hitori no boku's identity, identifying my feelings towards mou hitori no boku, that school assignment due beginning of next term? Which goes first?

Well let's consider each. First we have the problems concerning my friends. Directly related to mou hitori no boku I suppose, but not. There's nothing much I can do about it, in the words of friend Ryou. I can't really do much about what they think, I can only give them more time and stand my ground, so while that is a big problem, because I can't do anything about it, it shouldn't be first. Lock that one into Third please.

Now we have, mou hitori no boku related things, versus, school work. On one hand we got, the spirit that lives tucked away in the entrapments of the millennium puzzle, and in the other we have, failing geography. I guess I can do geography homework in the gaps when I'm not doing other things, not really a big problem, so I think we'll lock that into all available time slots, or place it Second.

That leaves mou hitori no boku at the top of the list.

I guess I should think about that then. Let's see, I guess I can sub-categorise this problem. We've got, his identity, or recently occurring and confusing feelings. Oh, this is so hard. I have no choice but to group them together again, or, maybe hope the second one will figure out itself. Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Let's just let things run their natural course, think about consequence later. As for his identity, he can't remember his name, but there are still issues.

Like the mystery of that first encounter.

I have yet to ask him about that, I have a feeling he'll avoid the question, answer me or maybe he'll completely flip out again and run from my room. That last one's a little disconcerting but I suppose it's there so I'll have to acknowledge its presence as a possibility. A bad one, but still one.

First time, I was talking to him, I seized his hand and he… he kind of flipped out, there was that violent emotion in his eyes that I couldn't read for the sheer and sudden loudness of it screaming in a cracked voice before it vanished and he fled. The other time I seized his hand, his eyes went small and wide, that was my perception of the movement, but this time he didn't run, he beared it. But beared what? I wonder why me grabbing his hand has that effect. I will have to inquire about it, next time we speak. I suppose we really need to work a little on our communication, though at the moment we seem to be sailing smoothly.

Sailing smoothly and straight into a storm no doubt. The story of my life, things are looking good, and then they're looking terrible. Last time it was fast, mou hitori no boku spoke back, we met for the first time, amazing. The first time I saw him. His eyes, walk, movement, sauntering, red, violent, dangerous, dark, mysterious, golden, glitter, demonic.

Incredible.

Everything seemed well enough considering we'd never really spoken face to face before. Then everything went worse than pear shaped. It was like, flattened, road-kill, pear shaped. But it brought us somehow closer. It's kind of like, when I took that puzzle off, I pushed mou hitori no boku to a level where he had been dragged into a wall so hard that it broke. Careened through the wall and it splintered, cut and battered him, and he came to me and cried. The first barrier was broken by accident. I'm not going to take the puzzle off again, but I need to break a new barrier.

Here we are now. Close but still kind of far apart, too far apart for a pair such as us.

My eyes close smoothly, and I take up the practiced art of vanishing into my hearts room, while my body remains curled peacefully on my bed. The tug wasn't as jarring anymore, my spectral body had grown used to the change. I sighed happily at the comfort of my hearts room, sitting up from my place on the bed, the mattress shifting beneath me and the soft whisper of silk.

"Mou hitori no boku? I would like to speak with you." I say loudly, knowing that he can hear me from wherever he is within the cryptic puzzles maze. It still amazes me, that room with so many doorways and hallways. It was upside down, inside out, all over the place like a strange painting I had once seen, or the castle where Jarred lives in "the labyrinth". My imagination almost stretches to picture mou hitori no boku dancing in a puffy kind of shirt singing "Dance, magic Dance!". Oh how that would destroy his dignity.

The door creaks open cautiously before I say a chirped hello and the door opens smoothly and quickly to admit mou hitori no boku in all his demonically beautiful glory.

"Aibou?"

"Mou hitori no boku." I rise from my bed and head over to him. We meet in the middle of the room, his slight extra height to mine means that I'm looking up at him and he's looking down at me at this proximity. I can trace the faint lines of his muscle tones beneath his shirt with my eyes, and with one extra step, I could feel the heat that must glow from him, hotter than Hades. "I need to ask you something."

"Yes?"

"That time, when we first met face to face like this. I asked you who you were, you grew distant, you completely zoned out. I tried to snap you out of it, and when I touched you hand, your eyes flickered and you ran. The other time I have grabbed you by your hand or wrist, your eyes have changed, but you didn't run like the first time. Mou hitori no boku, why did you run? What happened then, and what still happens now? I don't understand."

He considers carefully his answer. Mulling it over in his mind as he remembers. Those blood red demon eyes of his are distant. I hope he doesn't do what happen last time. I haven't asked him who he is since that time, I've asked him his name but not used the words "who are you" since then. Afraid of the same thing happening again.

"Aibou." Still an aibou, not a Yuugi. "You…Your touch aibou… I"

Mou hitori no boku seems at a complete loss for words, he frowns and I can almost hear himself mentally berating himself for doing such a thing as to have nothing to say when trying to speak. Trying to conduct his thoughts into a proper idea, a solid thought.

"Aibou, when you grab me, I am unprepared for the feeling of you touching me. The only thing to have touched me in these past years, has been ghostly shadow hands. So when you grabbed me then, I became… I became a startled among other things."

He's concealing something. There's something he's unwilling to tell me. Something about the contact.

"What other things?"

Oh, I hope I'm not pushing my luck, I hope I'm not carrying this a little too far and pressing him too hard.

"Let me…show you." He offers a palm to me, gazing at me with impregnable eyes. I'm not sure if I should, but I don't want to loose this trust he has with me, and seem like I'm distrusting him by not taking the offered hand.

Gently I lay my hand upon his own, and as his fingers curl around it, successful trapping it within its warm confines, we don't begin to move, and he smiles. He's not taking me somewhere so I don't understand. He continues to grin, his eyes spark and then suddenly a feeling like cool fire rushes up my arms. I can see it as traces of black and gold lines as it rushes up my body. I try to yank my hand back but he has it firmly. It tears up my body to my mind, I can feel the lines tracing up my neck, across my scalp. I feel golden press against my ear but not enter, and then the black rushes over my eyes. I can't see and I can't hear, I can't even hear myself breathe.

I've never been more afraid. The hand around mine tightens. Oh dear, maybe they were right! Maybe he's a demon. Demon of the puzzle, oh god. Then suddenly my mind goes blank, I can feel myself but there are other thoughts here, and I can't think my own. My eyes fill with the vision of myself. Looking at me from a greater height, waving a hand before my eyes. All I can hear in my mind is a jumble of a million disjointed thoughts. All started when I(?) tried to remember the past that was stolen by the greedy hands of the shadows.

'Who- shadow- dark- part of the- who am I?- night- evil- nothing- worthless- nobody- who- what- part of them- creator of pain- black- don't hurt m- save us- but you don't under- shadow creature- you must protec-'

Oh god, it doesn't stop. Voices that keep whispering. My hand waves at me again and then I see me lean in closer, coming nearer. I feel a hand suddenly wrap around my wrist. Snap, the voices stop suddenly and roaring silence comes in. Jolts of panic, fear, heartache, confusion briefly flutter before I(?) rein them in under my control as my wrist is released. I look down at me.

'Aibou…' my thought?

"A-Aibou…"

I touched me, the contact was so sudden and strange. So hot and warm, unlike the cold shackles of the shadows, so soft. A warm flush tingles through me, a peculiar feeling of like for myself. I want to reach and touch me again, to feel the pleasurable tingle and the jolt of electricity to. No, I can't. He's my master, aibou. My aibou. I can't stay here, I can't, I'm so confused, the thoughts, the noise in my mind, it still rings. That flare of light, the stinging shock and brightness, still glares with its remaining glow, the remnants of purity.

"I am sorry."

I'm reaching out to touch me again, my hand settles around my wrist again and I can see the confused look in my eyes at my words. The feel. The touch. The point of contact, flares brightly and my heart beats once too hard. So bright, so addictive, so much. Desire springs, I want more. No, no more! Aibou! No, shadows grabbing, no aibou. It's aibou not them. The voices start again, but this time they're all my own, conflicting ideas. No need control. Can't!

I wrench my hand free and run back to the puzzle, I don't look over my should to see the look on my face.

Everything is blank, the thoughts that existed as mine but weren't vanish as in a plume of purple haze the gold unclogs my ears and the black washes off my eyes. Mou hitori no boku, unclasps his hand, but still my hand rests there but it's free to leave.

What was that? That confusion. Those thoughts, they were mine but it wasn't me thinking them. I must've…

I look up at mou hitori no boku as the realisation hits me. His eyes are closed, shielding me from that redder than blood blankness.

…I must've, I must've experienced the past as him. The thoughts that were mine, the feelings that were mine, were his. He was creating them, but for that memory I was him. Those feelings, the thoughts. So that's what happened. And that's why, his eyes start when I grasp his wrist or hand. That sensation.

I stare down at my hand, like it has some strange magic power in it. Really it must just be the way my spirit reacts to his, but I can't feel it… maybe I do? That strange attraction. Like magnets. Aibou's… partners of the heart. I look back up, he's staring at me, demonic red rubies, glowing impassively, steel doors closed and barred. A mind trap of complexities, alluring darkness, the mystery of this creature before me. This being.

He smiles, canines glistening, eyes a little softer. It was my turn to run into the barrier. I grab his wrist.


	8. To Touch

Title: Partners of the Heart

Part: 8 of ?

Author: SilverWing

Genre: Romance/angst/general?

Pairing: YxYY

Rating: Pretty PG at the moment.

Warnings: None. un-beta'd

Summary/Description: Yuugi is wondering about mou hitori no boku. Wondering just who is this spirit, living within the golden encasings of the millennium puzzle. Some how he will know who mou hitori no boku is.

Doesn't take place in the series. Uses the Japanese names. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not, never have and more than likely never will, own Yu-Gi-Oh dies a little inside.

Authors note:

Silver: Ah! I beg for your forgiveness in not having updated. So much that the Authors notes will be at the bottom of the story so you can read it fast! Enjoy!

To Touch

I had grabbed his wrist. He wasn't as startled, but the intention behind me, knowing what I know now about the effects of me grabbing him like this, made me blush. My face flushed slightly brighter as he grinned at me, white teeth flashing in a light gleaming from somewhere behind me, and grabbed my wrist.

He's never grabbed me like this before. It's always been seizing my hand. Suddenly, a sensation I was familiar with, from being him for those brief moments in history, flashed through my heart. I admitted right from the start, that he was attractive in his hellish gaze. Attractive in the way in which he walked like a stalking predator. Attractive in ways I couldn't fathom, because of the allure of his mystery. I admitted that his presence at close range led my thoughts off track. I had problems thinking about anything to say to him, so infatuated I suppose. I don't think it's much different now.

I've grabbed him. He's grabbed me. It's like a complete electrical circuit. Instead of the shocking zap I had associated with this form of contact, from when I was mou hitori no boku, the electricity moving through us was like a quietly vibrant humming. We're so close now that, I don't want to really try and think anything too large, my mind would shut down completely under the strain. He's so close. I'm so caught up in measuring the short distance between us. One step and we'd be standing on each other.

I look into his eyes; they're not so unreadable. I can sort of see, lurking in the pristine depths to the left of his pupil, the trace of some kind of attraction. The attraction I remembered feeling for myself when I grabbed me…does that makes sense. What I mean is, I remember the attraction from when I was mou hitori no boku, what I had felt as him when I had grabbed him. Yeah, that's more easily understandable right?

I can't move. I can't think beyond him, and he is close so I'm not thinking very far. Arms captured, staring. I have a light blush on my face. I know it. I can feel it. Damn blush.

"Aibou."

Mou hitori no boku, only just murmurs the word. Like he just wanted a sound.

"Mou hitori no boku."

I reply in like. Hm, I wonder what Anzu and Jounouchi would think now. Here I am, before the embodiment of a hellion god. Staring so intently, I could almost see through his shirt, imagining the muscle beneath.

I can't believe I'm here.

It's one of those kind of moments where you ask "How the heck did I get here?" and "What happens now?".

…What does happen now? I don't want to let go, and I don't want him to let go. But I have to return to my body. I have to get back to "reality" as it were.

What's the next step from here? I know what my body desires, even if it isn't really a real body, but a manifestation of my soul and mind inside my heart, but still.

Another question would be what have I gained in knowledge? Do I know who he is? I've always had a definition of what he is in my mind. He's mysterious, dark, sensuous, and appealing to me in ways he shouldn't be. The other half of me, with the eyes that should belong to a demon. He's lost some of his sharper corners though. I've seen the vulnerable side. He's softer now, not so dark and commanding, but it's still there. The shadows of control cocooned around him. But just who is he? Do I know? Does he have a name?

Mou hitori no boku… that's what he is, what he said he's proud to be. A part of me. The other me…

I can feel a tug on my physical body, and I almost want to cry out in exasperation. This is the kind of thing that always happens to me. Just when I think I'm going somewhere, when I think something may be about to turn out right, WHAM! It's a tiring process, but at least this time it's not a problem between mou hitori no boku and I. That's a relief, but still.

Mou hitori no boku looks at me, with that gleam in his eyes that he understands. He releases my wrist. Disappointed, I release his. We'd just got so far on a spur of moment, that now the awkwardness can settle in, it was a moment I don't think could ever be recaptured.

"Yuugi! Yuugi!"

The voice is radiating from my walls, and mou hitori no boku nudges me to answer, before someone gets a bright idea and removes the puzzle, or thinks something is terribly wrong with me…or both.

"Yuugi! Get up right now! We have to get to the hospital!"

Something goes good and then something goes bad.

Xx Back to "Reality" xX

'I hate hospitals, I hate hospitals, I hate hospitals, I hate hospitals, I hate hospitals, I hate hospitals…'

The sterile white walls seem to crowd around me and my black, red, and gold hair, in it's unruly spikes. They seem so out of place amongst the pale blues and whites of a conservative hospital. My hair is so unorderly in this chaotic and organised facility. But I'm just distracting myself aren't I?

I'm in here because a few moments ago my grandfather answered a phone call on my behalf. Less than those few moments ago he "woke" me and shoved me in the car, explaining details on the way.

The fine doctors of Domino District Hospital, were calling for a Mr. Yuugi Mouto. The phone number of whom was found on the body of a Mr. Ryou Bakura.

"Mr. Bakura was found in an alleyway two blocks from his quiet home (two blocks from the drawing of his mother and the painting of the seaside). The condition in which Mr. Bakura was found in wasn't immediately life threatening, although he will be incapacitated for a few weeks. As Mr. Bakura lives alone and it's inconceivable for him to be left to his own devices, we request that you accommodate him at your house until he is well enough to be on his own again. We called your number because we found it in his wallet, and when queried he said that you were a friend. Thank you."

That was the main gist of the conversation. So now we were waiting in the hospital as the final few injections were completed, and a series of pill bottles filled and tightly closed.

I hate needles. You can't get me to have one unless I'm passed out first. No way would I let any doctor near me with a needle. Ever! The last needle I had, I had to be restrained so they could give it to me. It didn't take much to restrain me though. I was shorter than I am now and not as strong…if you could call my current state strong.

Maybe you could… But I'm strong now because of mou hitori no boku, he's the one being strong when I'm in trouble, so I guess I can't say I am. Darn, thought I had won there somehow. Oh well, being strong by having mou hitori no boku, is better than being strong without him.

I wonder what kind of injuries Ryou has. I mean, he may have been really sick walking home and passed out from fever. Or maybe a bunch of thugs or something got him at. I've been trying not to think about it. I mean, soon enough I'll see him and he can explain just what's going on to me, but until such time as that, all I can do is speculate. Doctors are a real help. Sensing the sarcasm?

I feel so ill informed, but maybe once we get him home, and settled, I can ask him what happened. Maybe I'll ask him in the car… that would be faster.

"Mr Mouto?"

My Grandfather and I look up simultaneously and answer in unison "yes?"

"Mr. Bakura is free to be taken home now. He's been injected with some sedatives and some other drugs to help him sleep. In his current state it would be best if you could take him now. He's so drugged that there isn't a possibility that he'll wake in the car so he'll be easier to transport."

Is he talking about a human or a rabid kitten? Just how much did they drug him?

"Thank you doctor. We'll take him home right now."

"There are a few things he's going to need while he's at your house. He needs to take 3…"

Time to tune out. I'll let Grandpa talk to the doctor. Their medical babble makes no sense to me. I'm better off reading the label on the bottles that say "Take twice daily" then have the doctor say some long complicated name for cold and flu tablets and tell me to "you need to ingest two of these tablets per sun cycle". So confusing.

"…The nurse will meet you at the front door with him and his belongings."

Good thing too, I wouldn't be able to find his room in this place. They'll bring him to us. I wonder how he's getting down there if he's completely conked out? How will we get him out of the car and into the house come to think of it? I'm not big enough to carry him. Grandpa isn't either. Looks like it'll have to be teamwork. Great.

We head out to the front door, and I have to keep stopping myself gnawing at my bottom lip in anticipation. He must be physically injured if drugging him so much makes it easier for him to travel…

"Yuugi my boy. Why don't you head over to the car and make sure the back seat is clear?"

A nod.

"Okay, here's the key. Don't forget the central locking means you have to unlock my door with the key or the alarm will go off."

"Yes Grandpa."

My Grandpa got so used to locking the door with a key that he doesn't use the remote on the key with his new car. That means you have to unlock it with the key in the same door because otherwise the alarm goes off. I don't understand why, but it does.

I walk through the parking lot of the hospital, there aren't many cars occupying the spaces so we're pretty close to the entrance and I don't have to walk far. The sounds of cars rumbling by to my left goes ignored, as do the sounds of the asphalt crunching and grinding beneath my sneakered feet. The street lights all cast eerie glows down upon the windshields of a few of the cars, sparkling in splatters on the bonnets of others. Apart from the usual ambiance around me, the parking lot was silent and even slightly unnerving. I'm so glad mou hitori no boku is with me, as he always is. If he wasn't I wouldn't feel anywhere close to as confident as I do now, strolling through the gaps in the cars.

Then again, if there ever was a place to be beaten up…

I wonder how Ryou is. I wonder where he was and how long he'd been in his "condition" before he received medical attention. I wonder how it happened, the way they're talking, he's injured not ill. It's not a sickness he's suffered, but a beating… there's no point in speculating.

I arrive at the car, unlocking the driver side door with its respective key, and as it yields to the mystique power of said key, the a churning sound the rest of the locks springing up chorus and the doors are ready to be opened. Now to the task at hand!

One look at the backseat and I shake my head. The grey edges of a folder filled with paper, some stray wrappers, and one or two boxes of grandpa's "I'll get it when I need it!" heavy merchandise. I slowly move the stuff into the boot of the car, making sure that there isn't a stray Stanley knife lying haphazardly on the seat.

I wonder what happened… I shake my head, I don't want to think about it or contemplate it. Let's just think about other things. It's worked well so far, and it would have continued to have worked if Grandpa and some helpful nurse didn't just appear, wheeling Ryou before them, sprawled in a wheelchair.

One side of his face was wrapped in starkly white bandages that also branched off under his hair. Both of his palms were wrapped fingers free from binding, and judging on the uncomfortable lay of his clothes, his chest and abdomen were bandaged also. One of his legs was adorned in the hard white armour that makes a cast. Wow. Did he ever take a beating!

My chest stirs in anger and worry. The mix isn't a very good one. The nurse says not to let him move around too much, and passes me a set of crutches to put in the boot while she and grandpa manoeuvre Ryou into the back seat.

After politely thanking the nurse, and the nurse complimenting us on "taking him in" while he's so injured, we headed home and I was left to contemplate. I didn't think that it would be this bad. I mean, I don't know the extent of his bandaging, his upper arms may very well be bandaged too but, they had said his condition wasn't "immediately life threatening".

Then again, the injuries that he looks like he might've sustained could very well just be very painful but not a danger to his life. Beating someone enough to severely hurt and impede them, but not enough that they are no longer alive. Either someone doesn't want to be a murderer, or they are going to come back for him.

"So Grandpa how are we going to get him inside?"

"I'll carry his legs, you can carry his head, and get him in that way. That reminds me. Tomorrow can you go over to Ryou's and pick up some clothes for him? I don't think yours will fit him." A wry chuckle.

"Sure thing. I'll go tomorrow morning."

'Aibou.'

I wonder if I could tell him to call me Yuugi. Not that aibou isn't flattering, I guess I'm back here again. I want him to call me by my name, but then again, he doesn't have one so maybe this evens us out. Maybe. Wait… he's talking to me first! He's done it again! Initiating!

'Yes mou hitori no boku?'

'…I could help that one, in the back, perhaps.'

'You could?' A happy shock.

'Yes. It wouldn't be a complete recovery, but it will be better.'

Xx Time Lapse xX

My hand, our hand, his hand, was poised above Ryou's chest. I was still conscious to what was going on from the sheets of my soul room's bed. I had handed control to mou hitori no boku so he can perform some sort of "healing" on my battered friend.

His hand lingers above Ryou's chest and I feel mou hitori no boku collect himself together in preparation for the magic. It feels like a tingle at the very back of my eyeballs as I watch and try to stay as connected as I can. The energy he's channelling through my body, is passing just outside my doorway, hence why I can feel it.

Suddenly my body loses physical vision. I couldn't see Ryou anymore as mou hitori no bou closed his eyes in concentration. There was a thought whirling around outside of our body, a command issued without words that had almost become entirely tangible. It was this command that suddenly gave me perception of the outside world. It was like someone shining a blue flashlight that captured the contours of my room, while everything else remained dark. It came and went in pulses but each pulse came before the image of what was there faded. It was like a radar and it gave me the image of Ryou lying on the guest bed, shirt removed, bandaged chest exposed.

The damage went to his left shoulder as well, and although I still hadn't been informed of the specifics of his injuries, the fine flim of painful, bitter sweat gathered on his brow, told me it hurt.

The intention, the command that mou hitori no boku had unleashed as energy skimmed up and down Ryou's body, trying to find cracks that it could force it's way into, the bandages a hindrance but not a complete barrier against it. Slowly it seeped in, ready to relay it's intentions to Ryou's body. I watched in fascination, as mou hitori no boku's eyes opened, and I could see that intention crawling in with my own eyes. The idea was that this piece of tangible thought and magic would command Ryou's body to heal, tell the body directly to heal. And it would heal to a certain degree, before it was pushing a body too far to do so and you risked weakening bones and muscles. It was almost like taking control Ryou's body, except only a form of magic and thought was controlling him, not an actual spirit.

That was what I had managed to decipher from the small knowledge passed to me by mou hitori no boku. A frown seized his features though, and I could tell something wasn't right. The glowing piece of magic wasn't entering any further, almost like it was being repelled, like it had hit an barrier as impenetrable as the emotion in mou hitori no boku's eyes when he concealed his secrets.

Slightly agitated, mou hitori no boku pushed the thought forward with more force, and it was just as strongly blocked. The sweat on Ryou's brow increased, and mou hitori no boku resigned and retreated. The thought dissolved without a will, and his hands retracted back. His thoughts were guarded from me so I didn't have any idea what he was thinking.

I had no idea what to make of this, and I still didn't as control was resettled into my grasp and I walked out of the guest room to my own awaiting bed. Something stopped mou hitori no boku. And by the feeling I had, the awareness of mou hitori no boku that I had gathered, I could tell that he was considering something that was a deeply disturbing concept to him.

Whatever was there was preventing Ryou's body from being healed any faster than it would regularly. Something wanted his pain to last.

Xx Next morning xX

The silence ringing between mou hitori no boku and I was uncomfortable as he thought. Usually we are silent, it was nothing unusual, we weren't talking to each other all the time, as you will well know. But this time the silence stretched over a distance not there before. It was like he was completely lost to me, but I could still feel the wrappings of his conscious clinging to my skin, alert to any attack made against me.

It has something to do with Ryou who should be regaining consciousness any time now, so I'd best hurry and get his clothes. His front door succumbed to the key that we had been told were found on him when they admitted him into hospital. In the same pocket as my scrawled phone number.

His house was just as pristine as I remember it. The portrait of his mother still smiling from her position on the wall, smiling at her son, not realising he wasn't even there. I headed upstairs; I've never actually been to his room before so I'd have to hunt. I tried the first door to the left. The room was bare of all but a set of draws and a bed; dust gathered faintly over everything. Obviously a guest room.

I tried the next door, a bathroom. The door opposite. There was a room completely untouched and old. There was a black rose floral design covering a large king-sized bed, situated in the middle of one wall. The headboard wrought in black iron and ivy patterns. It was smattered with a layer of dust that sat like discoloured frosting over the entire room, even the carpet. Sunlight filtered on to a patch on the floor that was slightly lighter than the rest of the mauve carpeting, it crept in past sun faded jade curtains. There was a writing desk and a set of drawers, died red oak, perfectly polished wood underneath the dust. There were silver framed photos of faces that were blurred to me from my place in the doorway, but they were obviously family portraits, and staring I made out four figures. Two tall, two short. Ryou's family picture, in his parent's bedroom. Completely untouched, preserved in a moment of time that looked like had been carefree, a shirt lying on the floor. A females white blouse.

The room was almost holy and yet completely unholy at the same time. It sent shivers up my spine and heartache through my body. Ryou was truly alone in this house for four.

I passed another door, a small sticker of a pony just above the doorknob. There was dust on the handle. I didn't touch it.

The last door, hidden away in the right hand corner was Ryou's. It was clean, fresh and lived in. Gloriously lived in. It wasn't immaculate, but much cleaner than mine. The floor was clear of mess, the draws all closed and the pictures all arranged neatly, the glass clear of smudges and that ghostly dust gathered in the other rooms.

I wander over to his draws and in so passed his desk, eyes flicking over to notice the few scattered pieces of paper littering it. Maybe they're his homework and I should bring them along. Interest peaking I glance over the documents, my eyes falling upon one that tugged me to the point where I had to read it.

'_Dear Armane _(A letter? Who's Armane? There's no one at my school named that…)

_ I guess I'll start with the generic how are you, eh? So how are you? I've been doing well. Father is still gone somewhere I don't know. I'm sure you know how upset he was when you and mother both left us, he hasn't returned home since that rather unpleasant day. Last letter I received from him was from Egypt, a few days after I sent you your fourth letter. Long time huh sis?_

_ I miss you a lot my little sister, and sometimes this house is just too big and empty. Luckily father has been depositing money into my account every week to pay for the food and upkeep of this place, even if he doesn't contact me at all. I haven't been in your room since you left. See I told you I could do it. All those times when you got angry with me for "invading your room" I haven't "invaded" since you and mum left. Feel proud of me?_

_ Guess what sis? I think I've made a friend in this place at last! His name is Yuugi Mouto, and he has another self. He's a very kind person, he has gentle eyes, I think you would've got along with him really well sis. I've never met his other self, and hopefully I never will. He seems very…noble in the old fashion sense._

_ Speaking of the mystic, I threw it away yesterday afternoon, sis. That gift father sent me for my birthday, the one I'm always reporting to you about. The Millennium Ring. I threw it as far away from me as I could yesterday, and then ran home. It frightens me too much. I hope this time it stays away. Oh he's going to be furious with me for throwing it away like that. I feel a little guilty, because father had given it to me, but he's hardly here, so is he father anymore? I'm sure if he were here, if he lived here at all, that he would have encouraged me to throw it away again._

_ Well sis, I imagine that you've been having a lot of fun with mum up there, and I bet the weather is perfect. Bright and sunny with a light breeze, your favourite kind._

_I 'm sorry my letter has to be so short but I'll write again soon little sister. My stomach rumbles so I'll take it as a que to go and buy food. I hope that you're having fun. I love you very dearly, and miss you a lot. Tell mum that I love her too. I look forward to seeing you both again someday._

_Good-bye_

_Love Ryou'_

Armane? Little sister? Millennium Ring? I can feel mou hitori no boku stir at the thought of the Millennium Ring. I have a Millennium puzzle, are these two things related? Mou hitori no boku isn't sure but the feeling I get from him tells me that something in his memory stirs at the mention.

Where did his mother and younger sister go? I'll have to ask him when he comes to back home. Speaking of home and Ryou coming to, I'd better get back there! I quick march across the plush carpet of Ryou's bedroom and to his chest of drawers. I go through and pick out some clothes, boxers, underwear, and everything else when I come to the last draw. I already have pants, shirts, underwear, socks, boxers, nightclothes, jumpers, what could be in this draw?

It slides open smoothly, and I peer in curiously, shock registering on my face before I can even register in my mind it's contents.

Dolls.

Twenty or so, wooden dolls. Each with a look of terror, despair or defeat, frozen in place. Their hair is so well maintained to touch, and the wood feels warm beneath my fingers as I reach out to touch the face of a woman with the grotesque appearance of wailing set into her eyes and face. My hand quickly snaps back, I hadn't made it do that and a quickly realise that as hard as I try that arm, or the other for that matter, doesn't respond at all! I can't clench my fist, move my arm closer or further away than they already are!

'Don't touch them.'

Mou hitori no boku's voice is as stern as steel as he issues that sole command. This is unusual, he doesn't ever tell me what to do because, as he said some time before, I am his master. Now I'm not saying that as in "How dare he order me around", no there's no problem with that at all. It's just that the fact that he said it means those dolls are very _very_ dangerous. I can feel him set on edge, the great darkness of my heart. My hands shove the drawers closed and I feel myself jerked free of my body and into the room of my heart suddenly. The world lurches and as used to it as I'm getting, the sensation is still strange.

'Mou hitori no boku?'

Purposefully he picks up the bag of Ryou's clothes and marches out of the house, flicking the door forcefully closed behind him, striding elegantly towards home. Energy radiating off him as he walks.

'Mou hitori no boku? What's wrong?'

His teeth grit and the grip he has on my bag tightens slightly, but there is no response yet. His eyes are narrowed with grim purpose and stinging anger, though it is not directed at me.

'Dark spells, aibou. The friend of yours we tried to heal, has been playing with the dark games.'

His voice is a low and strained growl, his aura stiff.

'…Dark games? Mou hitori no boku, I don't understand.'

His anger surges leaps and snaps to get at Ryou. Why Ryou? Oh how I wish I had any idea what mou hitori no boku was talking about. Maybe Ryou has done something bad, that's why in that letter he wrote to his little sister he said he didn't want to meet him. Was he afraid that mou hitori no boku would discover some secret and punish him?

'Mou hitori no boku! Please, answer me! I don't understand!'

…

'Aibou, those dolls aren't made of true wood. They are people, once of flesh turned into dolls of wood! In each of those dolls is a trapped soul, they were once people and he who trapped them there is in your house!'

His step quickens. I don't know what to think.

A blur of motions and suddenly mou hitori no boku bursts through the guest room doorway gaining a squeak of surprise from Ryou. His solitary eye, looks at mou hitori no boku and fear twinkles in its corner, but the rest of it is resigned and nearly emotionless impassively and strangely hauntingly.

"You must be the other Yuugi."

His voice is so raspy, raw from screaming undoubtedly, as he replies to the sudden intrusion to what is temporarily his room. He seems so harmless, lying in the guest room bed, sheet's lay neatly across him. Pillows behind him, cushioning his back and gently propping him up. There are more bandage visible than flesh, half of his face bandaged. Dwarfed by his injuries, the size of the bed and the furniture around.

"Yes I am."

"You've been to my house."

Mou hitori no boku nods sternly. Ryou's voice is so soft, accepting, and so very neutral through it's husky rasp.

"I see. And you're here talking to me now instead of Yuugi… because of the dolls in my room."

"There are souls in those dolls, they were all once humans."

"They were."

"Why? What did they do to deserve punishment like that?"

"Somehow their paths crossed mine. They were friends of mine at one point, met me at another point, bumped into me, inspired me to smile, were happy. Some said cruel things to me, some were too kind."

"So you turned them to dolls!"

"Not me. Though they are my dolls, Toy's for a Toy."

A thousand volts strike me all at once. Toy's for a Toy! The letter, the millennium Ring. It frightened him, he had tried to get rid of it before, but it came back. That's what the letter was saying. It all begins to click together in my mind. The Millennium Ring must have a spirit inside it like the Millennium Puzzle, and that spirit has been turning people into dolls. Ryou tried to get rid of it. He threw it away, and said, "He'll be angry". _He'll_, the spirit must have got angry with Ryou… then these injuries…

"A Spirit from the Millennium Ring did this to you?"

Ryou grimaced and fear sparked in his eye at the same moment, a conflict of resigned rebelliousness, and absolute terror. "He doesn't like it, when I defy him."

"But how? He's just a spirit inside the ring!"

"He can take form outside of the Ring." A vicious cough. "He can only touch me and the ring though, that's why he needs me."

That's why mou hitori no boku couldn't heal Ryou, the spirit of the Ring was blocking it. He wants his host to suffer for his disobedience. Unlike mou hitori no boku, the spirit of the ring seems not to regard his host as his partner of whom he must care for, and isn't as grateful as mou hitori no boku is to me. He doesn't protect Ryou. He hurts him, physically and mentally. Turning his friends into dolls.

"Where is the ring now? Where is the Spirit?"

Ryou winced slightly as he lifted an arm and pointed at his bag of belongings from the hospital. Poor Ryou his body is in so much pain from the beating it sustained, though perfectly it was not enough to kill him, just hurt him a lot. I'm glad that mou hitori no boku isn't like the spirit of the ring at all. Now I think of it, this explains why Ryou was so accepting of mou hitori no boku, he has his own to deal with.

Mou hitori no boku approached the bag with determination written in aces in his stride.

"No don't!" Ryou cried out suddenly.

"Why?"

"He sleeps now, if you wake him he'll-he'll know I've talked to you. Other Yuugi, I appreciate that you want to catch the one responsible for all those dolls." The stinging scent of withheld tears. "But he is my other half. I cannot allow you to banish him completely from this plane, it was stupid of me to defy him like that, and I won't do it again. As for the dolls, I just have to learn to be more careful, perhaps one day he will change them back. He's the only one who can."

Mou hitori no boku contemplates his answer for only a short period before giving a nod.

"But should that spirit ever threaten my master then I will retaliate."

Ryou nodded his understanding.

"Just one more question Ryou. Where is your sister? And your mother?"

Ryou winced painfully, before his eye slid closed and his face appeared almost serene. I'm afraid that he's going to say that the spirit turned them to dolls. But he didn't. His lids just opened, tears glittering in his one visible eye, though never leaving its warmth. He looked at mou hitori no boku, and it felt like he was looking at me too. When he answered his voice was quieter than the sound of a feather dropping, but the effect it had on me, the impact of what he said, chilled and astounded me so much, that you could have knocked me over with said feather.

"They're not dolls. They live close enough for me to feel like I could touch them, and yet so far away I can't make out their faces. They both were killed in a car accident two years ago. Since they left, and my father vanished from my side, I've lived alone with the Spirit of the Ring. For two years he's the only constant."

* * *

AUTHORS NOTES!

Silver: This took so long because my attention is greatly divided at this time, and as this has no set plot, I had no idea what to do.

Wing: We did change it so instead of starting in the outside world and disregarding what happening in the Hearts Room we continued on! Wippy Chang!

Silver: This chapter is considerably longer than the others to compensate the wait.

Wing: Bonus explanations as well!

Silver: Now, while the theme of this story is Yuugi searching for just who "Mou hitori no boku" is, we need to shove Ryou in here too. He and the spirit of the ring, add to give Yuugi and the spirit of the puzzle contrast. There wasn't any interaction between Anzu and Jounouchi and Yuugi in this chapter because, well. We're building up everything around Yuugi. Troubles getting bigger. Relationship with his other self, then the conflict with the friends, and now Ryou's beating and his Darker half. Made more complex by Ryou's unwillingness to let Yuugi's other half have a go at him.

Wing: Also, the title is called "To Touch" at the start we have Yuugi and his other self, and it's all good. But then we move into "Reality" and see Ryou who's been in touch with his spirit out of his heart room and it's really bad. So while there's the good contact that Yuugi and his other self have, when they're connecting minds and their souls are essentially touching. And then we have Ryou and his other self's form of touch, out in the physical world of bodies, and it's a brutal beating, a lack of communication and emotion that the thought of souls and minds touching brings.

Silver: The other Ryou can help with some of the other Yuugi's past, as obviously he doesn't remember it so he's important there also! Next chapter will prolly feature the beginning of the culmination of problems. The other Ryou will come out and have a little bit of ago, Yuugi's friends will re-appear on the scene, Yuugi's relationship with his other self is going to slide one way or the other

Wing: This story is becoming much more involved than originally intended.

Silver: IMPORTANT! Part!

Wing: Now we had one or two people querying about a sequel to Forbidden Love. There will be one, which will be written directly after this story is finished, we just gotta think of a problem. The Sequel may be Unbidden Love or Indescribable Love, or Transparent Love, or Dissolving love, or Disapproved Love, or Concealed Love, or Trials of Love, or…well as you can see many possibilities. If anyone has an Idea pass it our way.

Silver: Also. We need a show of hands on Mou Hitori no Yuugi's Relationship with Yuugi. Some people were reviewing with "YEAH! In the next chapter will they kiss?" and others were "Yuugi don't let him touch you!" so, conflict there. I mean this is a YYxY fanfic, I'm writing Puzzleship here, so there will be some…erm…hands on interaction, but just how soon and everything depends on the response. I mean obviously in the next chapter they won't be pinning each other to a bed or anything (sorry hardcore Yaoi Fangirls. You'll have to wait a while yet) but you know, how soon is too soon or too late for you guys? What's your personal opinion?

Wing: That all said. Review button is down there


	9. This Sense of Fear

Title: Partners of the Heart

Part: 8 of ?

Author: SilverWing

Genre: Romance/angst/general?

Pairing: YxYY

Rating: Pretty PG at the moment.

Warnings: None. un-beta'd

Summary/Description: Yuugi is wondering about mou hitori no boku. Wondering just who is this spirit, living within the golden encasings of the millennium puzzle. Some how he will know who mou hitori no boku is.

Doesn't take place in the series. Uses the Japanese names. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not, never have and more than likely never will, own Yu-Gi-Oh dies a little inside.

Authors note:

Silver: Once more I've Author noted the bottom. Full explanation of lateness will be there!

This Sense of Fear

It was with a heightened sense of awe, caution, and amazement, that I returned to my room.

Ryou… has a spirit… a spirit who turned people to dolls and gave them to him as a toy. Ryou was playing host to someone whom considered themselves his owner, the puppet master. He has an evil spirit, a dark one who took up form and beat Ryou into the state that he's in now. I am ever so glad that mou hitori no boku isn't like that, but something is making my head tick slightly. Mou hitori no boku backed down.

I'm not sure I this is good or bad. Oh, time to do my favourite thing, let's contemplate this. Now on one hand, we have the other Ryou, and he's turning people into dolls. He scared Ryou so much that Ryou had thrown away the ring; only for it to return to him and the spirit beat him as punishment. But, Ryou doesn't want the spirit banished. He told this to mou hitori no boku, and he refrained from banishing him, warning Ryou that only if he should harm me would he move against him. But what about everyone else? All the other people he could trap away. Mou hitori no boku isn't going to do anything to help them?

Does this mean my perception of him, as a kind of dark saviour, fighting against the bad people of the world, and stopping innocents from being harmed, if he can, doesn't exist? He doesn't care about the rest of the world; the only one he has any desire to protect is me. He doesn't care at all about the rest of mankind. I mean I always knew he wouldn't go out of his way to stop evil, but just if he found bad people he dealt with them. I guess this means that he only dels with people who are bad to me. Maybe it's a good thing that I attract nearly every form of "bad person" within a 20 mile radius.

And why in the seven hells, doesn't Ryou want the dark spirit of the ring banished? It doesn't make any sense… unless. He did say that he's lived alone for a long time, with the Ring and its spirit the only other occupants in his house. Maybe in all that time, he's grown somewhat attached to the spirit. Not attached enough not to through it away, but attached enough so that he doesn't want it banished. You can wish an enemy far away, but not wish them to be killed. Or could it be the same way in which I don't want my other self banished. Partners of the heart. Parts of each other. Banishing the spirit of the Ring would be like banishing a part of Ryou I suppose, so even if he's not there, then at least he's alive and on the same plane of existence. Not entirely gone.

Maybe that's it. Mou hitori no boku understood that. Understood that even though the spirit of the Ring is a dark being, who plays with lives and controls his host without permission or any form of gratitude, he's still a part of Ryou. Still Ryou's heart partner, even though they don't act together as true partners, or even in some form of partnership, but rather in host and malicious spirit, they're still connected somehow.

Should I pity Ryou, for being stuck with such a hardship on his life when he's already had to endure the loss of family members and the abandonment of himself by his father. Pity is a terrible thing to give someone though. I mean I should be congratulating him on being so strong, not pitying him right? Maybe I just won't do anything… yeah. That way I can't really go wrong in an extreme way. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.

I plop down on my bed with an audible frump kind of sound. Checking for any game pieces on my bed before flopping backwards on it. I really should clean up my room every once in a while. Well at least I don't have to worry about the spirit. Ryou's body for the present time is pretty much unusable. I just have to worry about his spirit form floating around my house… possessing the toaster to make it more evil than it already is…

He couldn't possess me could he?

'No, aibou. The Millennium Puzzle shields you from all spirit possession, with the exception of me because I'm attached to the puzzle, enough that I may be considered a part of it.'

…How long has he been listening to my thoughts? Or maybe I had accidentally let that one slip through the mental link. It was a loud thought. Oh man.

I don't think I can sleep, with all this stuff in my head… I wonder what the other Ryou looks like. I wonder if he has a name. He wasn't really referred to in that letter that Ryou wrote… the letter to his sister.

He writes to his sister. And his sister is dead. Letters to the dead. I wonder how many he's written…

It's sad, the way that he writes to her like that. Like she's still alive and living somewhere. Maybe it's a form of comfort to him. Writing to a family member that he loved, even though he knows they'll never reply. It's not that uncommon right? I think I did it once, not long after my parent's death. But I was a small child then… I suppose it's no different from the millions of people who visit the graves of loved ones and talk to them. I feel kind of ashamed for reading something so personal so frivolously. But… in the letter he talks about not going in her room, and the handle was dusty, like he really was keeping a promise to a living person. I wonder if someone were to move to go in there… if he'd tell them to stop because it's his sisters room and she doesn't like it when people go in there. That's taking the extra step from grave talking.

I should stop contemplating the psyche of my friend and current guest shouldn't I? It's not good to second guess anyway. Speaking of friends, maybe I should attempt contact with Anzu and Jounouchi tomorrow. See if they've warmed up to the idea of mou hitori no boku actually existing as a separate being, and not a magically amplified mental disorder… yeah tomorrow…

Xx The Next day xX

Ryou is still out cold, otherwise called, sleeping soundly. Nestled away in layers of warm blankets he can't feel how much the temperature outside has dropped. There's a storm expected tonight. Just great, I hate storms. I'm more a sunny weather but not too hot kinda guy. I mean yes, the rain is pretty, and lightening would be pretty if it didn't crack the air and have the ability to kill me in a second. The loud booming is like the thundering sounds of bullies, pounding down the stairs I'm hiding under, fearful they'll find me. I mean I know the science behind the sound. The air is heated quickly and when the air expands due to the heat at such a rapid... no that's a boring line of thought, and I'm getting off track.

The gravel of the park pathway grinds and crunches under my sneakers, as I thoughtfully walk to an abandoned park bench. I had called Anzu and Jounouchi last night, said I would meet them here. We should talk again. Maybe this time they'll understand and recognise him. Maybe this time.

I collapse gratefully into the chair, tilting my head back to gaze at the murky sky above me. Greys, darker grey, and a few patches of light grey, are all clamoured and tumbling over each other. Heh, funny. I see no silver up there.

"Yuugi!"

Anzu. I don't even have to turn my head. Her and Jounouchi arrive together. I wonder if they met earlier to discuss this. Weigh the pros and cons.

"Hey guys."

"So you wanted to meet up with us today?"

"Yeah…I need to know where I stand with you guys. Where we stand."

The silence rustled between us with the leaves that blow on the storm-proclaiming breeze. They looked at each other. Why do they always hang together on things like this. Afraid to be pitted alone against me. That doesn't sound very friendly.

Jounouchi scuffs his sneakered foot on the ground, and looks at me. Honey brown eyes dripping with nervousness, desperation in the corners and slight fear filled stance that a tiny little man had taken up at the very back of his eyeballs. His blonde hair swayed with the breeze, his mouth opened, closed, and opened again. Small vowel sounds started each word before he changed his mind. Like every combination of words he knew just weren't the right ones.

"I…I wanna talk wit' 'im."

Surprised much? Jounouchi wanted to talk to mou hitori no boku? I look at him like he's sprouting a third head and that what he said was spoken in the strange dialect of the might empire of Byzantine.

"You 'eard me. I mean… if you say dis guy is really real, 'den I want ya to call 'im out, so I can talk to 'im."

He's nervous. I can tell by the slight quaver to hanging in his over-abundant use of slang. The more emotion, the more accent.

'Mou hitori no boku?'

'I heard.'

'…Then… are you taking control?'

There was no response but a fizzing tingle brushing the backs of my arms as mou hitori no boku gently bubbles the control away from me and settled in my place as the currently dominating force of my body.

"Jounouchi, Anzu."

The greeting was stern and impassive as ever. I hope I've done the right thing, I hope neither of them do anything rash. I trust mou hitori no boku, don't get me wrong, but I also trust in that he'll protect me from all. And if my friends step forward he won't move back, he'll step forward, and if he bowls them over with the force of his step, they shouldn't have come in so close.

"I dunno who you are. You're not Yuugi, and dat's all I know. I seen some of da things you've done, an' I'm grateful for you saving me from that gang. But what am I bein' grateful to? What da heck are ya? Are ya some vengeful spirit, or just a spell from da puzzle dat makes another Yuugi? A darker Yuugi. I dun' like spirits, or spells, or magic. And I dun' like the idea of their being this darker thing inside my best buddy. He's…He's just… He's innocent."

"So you fear that somehow I will rob that innocence away from my master, Jounouchi?"

"I…You're doing things, but you're doin' them as him. You're electrocuting people in Yuug's body, electrocuting dem while looking nearly exactly like my buddy. You're making his hands…dirty."

"Jounouchi, he is my master and I will protect him at all costs."

"What about you, puzzle thing? What'll protect Yuug' from you?"

"I will not harm my master. He needs not to be protected from me. You only fear me to harm him, as you know that should I choose to, you would be unable to stop me. I have control of his body, access to his mind, heart, and soul… and I could shred it all in a breath. I could destroy his life, kill his friends and grandpa. I could kill off each and everyone important to him. Is that why you reject me so Jounouchi? Anzu? Because you fear what I have done, and what I could do. You have no cause to fear me unless you intend to harm my master. My master is my existence, and I could no more harm him than I could change the journey of the sun."1

"Is dat it! He's your existence. That's it isn't it? You're some dark thing who needs Yuugi to be alive so you can live off 'im! You're nothin' but a parasite."

"Jounouchi don't-"

"No Anzu. It's true ain't it? You just wanna keep your master happy so he don't hole you up in dat puzzle again. Well then I'll take it away!"

"Jounouchi!"

"Stop!"

NO!

Jounouchi's body trembled on the ground as a deep purple mist gurgled around him. Anzu smothered a scream behind her hand, voice choked. My eyes were wide as I watched from my seat upon my bed. I had felt the impact the insult had had to mou hitori no boku, the insinuation and accusations had stung him a little, but not enough to make him flinch, just enough to make him irritable.

As Jounouchi's hand reached out, as he snatched at the puzzle, light had flared, he had been knocked back, and this purple mist had enveloped him. Mou hitori no boku pulsed with energy, it radiated in reaction to the threatening movements. Reacted to thought of the puzzle being taken away.

'M-mou hitori no boku, J-Jounouchi… what's… what's happening?'

'…'

I received no response. The black shadow magic created static between us. I could feel the hardness in his features though, as he turned to Anzu.

"Anzu. You haven't spoken as of yet. Am I a disorder of the mind? Am I a threat to his existence? His innocence?"

"I…I just want… Yuugi to be happy…I j-just want him s-safe. I-I don't care what you are, j-just as long as-as you're not h-hurting Yuugi."

Her voice was slipping all over the place, it's tones imbalanced. He nodded and turned back to face Jounouchi, still lying, unmoving, on the ground.

"Jounouchi, I do not seek to harm anyone. I do not seek the death of anyone. I seek only retribution and justice for their crimes against my master. You are forewarned not to try and remove the puzzle, and don't you _dare_ try to insinuate that I am some sort of parasite, feeding off my master.

Mou hitori no boku's tone was so icy I shuddered from the chill. The swirling mists faded back from around him, as I felt mou hitori no boku's hands unclenched. I hadn't even realised he had clenched them. The fact that he had clenched them… he was showing restraint in his reaction. He's done worse to others, but… do they know that?

Jounouchi coughed dryly, rolling to his side, hand covering his mouth. Anzu sprung forward in an instant, helping him up and looking with fear quivering in her eyes. She feared mou hitori no boku more than ever.

"I don't demand fear, or anything from you. My master wishes you only to acknowledge my existence, and not to act as though I am a mental disability. The only things that I demand I demand on behalf of my master to make him happy."

"Y-you, keep outta Yuugi. Ya hear me, spirit? Keep outta my buddy. I ain't afraid of you.-"

Oh Jounouchi, no.

"-I ain't afraid of any of yer black magic, Dark Yuugi. Leave him alone, ya parasite. I betcha you wouldn't be his protective of him, if he wasn't the one who could seal ya away. You're a curse. You've done something to my buddy, and you're dirtying his hands-"

Oh god, Jounouchi stop…

"-with your blackness. You're not afraid of getting hurt 'cause you wouldn't, Yuugi's body would be the thing taken the blows. You're a coward. You dirty bastard."

… The low threatening growl that passed through my lips, could never have been made by me. Mou hitori no boku was seething, eyes narrowed in a glare that would freeze melted tar and crack diamonds. I've never seen nor felt him this angry, but then again I've hardly been awake when he is angry so to me there isn't really much of a range of experience to compare this to.

Oh God Jounouchi, what have you done?

Jounouchi's panting on his feet, trying to stay standing, the last blow from mou hiori no boku having sapped all his energy. Anzu was hovering close by; terror showing in her eyes as mou hitori no boku began taking purposeful steps toward Jounouchi, black mist gathering around his feet.

"How _dare_ you."

The reply came as a soft and angry hiss.

"Your devotion to my master is admirable but don't you dare insinuate such things about me. I am here on the will of my Master, and only by his will, will I be gone."

He stood towering over Jounouchi even though he was shorter. Through the holes in Jounouchi's brave façade you could see the fear that mou hitori no boku had inspired within him with the force of his anger.

"I'm not your enemy. Nor do I intend to make you mine. I'm not a coward and protect him out of cowardice. I protect him because he is my master, my aibou, my Yuugi."

…Yuugi… he… he called me… Yuugi. Called me by my name. The significance and brilliance of the moment was lost however, as mou hitori no boku sent out a pulse of shadow magic. Magic that rippled and tore through the air like compressed water. It sent Jounouchi flying backwards though the air, while Anzu was kept safe from the blast. She didn't make a sound as mou hitori no boku turned on his heel and stalked out of the park, leaving her and Jounouchi behind.

As we reached it edge, the controls were handed abruptly back to me, and all I could do was stand at the gate in wonderment of events. Part of me flickered fear but the trust I had in him blew it out.

I don't know what happens now. At least they know he exists now right? Oh my what a diaster. Speaking of disasters, the heavens now decided to open and grace me with misery to suit the low mood. Rain rippled down the roads, filling potholes and cracks with the precious life sustaining liquid. I wasn't as appreciative as the plants as I got soaked though. I ran through the rain back home, this day was just getting better and better.

I make it home just in time to miss the first loud crash of thunder booming outside in the skies above me. The glass in the store rattles with the vibrations and sets me right on edge.

"Wow it's really coming down out there. I don't think anyone'll be out in this mess. I'm going to close up for the day."

"O-Okay Grandpa. I'm just gonna go to my room."

The sound of his chuckle, as I scampered to the safe haven that was my bed, almost made me want to turn and scowl at him, in a playful kind of way because we both know I can't scowl well, and then run to my room. But I skipped the scowl.

I hate thunderbolts, I hate lightening, I hate the loud-

BOOM!

"Ahh!"

I squeak and quickly scurry into dry clothes before flinging myself under my bed sheets. Hoping that somehow they'd protect me from the terrible electricity tearing through the air.

CRACK!

I could almost shake my head at the way I jumped and whimpered. And I would've if I wasn't so frightened. I hate storms!

'Aibou?'

"M-Mou hitori no boku?"

I answer a loud just because I can't make the mental effort to speak to him in my mind while my head's calculating the odds of thunder striking me, and preparing me for the next big-

BOOM

"Ah!"

"Aibou."

My ears tingle. I could have sworn I heard that in my mind and with my actual ears. I…

He's in my room. Mou hitori no boku is in my room. I pull my head just far enough out of my protective pillows, to be able to see a set of legs clad in leather though slightly transparent. I turned my head to see the rest of him better. He glowed in the night. Skin silvery yet gold. His demonic eyes looked almost solid with their intensity.

"What… I mean… How did you get here? How can I see you?"

He folded his arms neatly across his chest as he answered me.

"If the soul stealer is able to be out of his item. I can too."

I may have felt the need to chuckle with this bit of competitiveness. But Ryou's spirit beat him, which must mean…

My shaky hand slithers out of the bed sheets and reaches out gingerly to touch the closest part of him there is. My eyes widen as my fingertips brush the cool fabric of the leather. He feels solid. I press lightly, to test how solid and am ecstatic to find my hand doesn't pass through him at all! He feels completely solid to me, even if he appears a ghost!

I smile at him wildly.

"You feel solid."

He sits down on my bed and peers through his hand, holding it to the light above him and watching the light shine through it.

"I feel solid, but I'm transparent to a degree."

He continues to watch the light dancing through his hand, with a look of slight fascination and contemplative thought. A hint of sadness lurks in the corner, he's probably sad he's so transparent. It just further proves him as a ghost, a spirit… a dead thing. His soul lives but his body is long dead, and unknown. I wonder what grave he could be buried in. Does he even have a grave? What happened to his body? How did he die? Why is he trapped inside of the puzzle… was he really a bad person who deserved to truly be locked away forever?

My senses tingle and mou hitori no boku turns and looks sharply to the doorway as a form seeps through.

A gasp strangles past my lips, and I cower a little in my blankets as mou hitori no boku rises to his feet.

It must be the spirit of the Ring. His resemblance to the kindhearted Ryou is as incredible as my resemblance to mou hitori no boku. But this spirit's hair is sharper than Ryou's, and wilder. His eyes are narrowed mahogany that glimmers with a wicked intention and superior mirth.

"I thought I recognised the feel of meddling magic interfering with the healing speed of my host."

His voice was rough and husky where Ryou's was light and smooth. It was a shade deeper, and much more menacing. I wouldn't want to me him in a dark anywhere.

"Who are you?"

Mou hitori no boku's voice is demanding and impassive, taking advantage of it's depth to make himself appear larger, for lack of a better word.

"Oh? Do you not recognise me Majesty? Or are your lowly peasants too unimportant to remember? Do you often forget about people you've trapped in millennium items?"

Mou hitori no boku's fist clenched and I looked on between the two spirits. This would be the second argument with someone mou hitori no boku's had today.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Explain yourself."

The other Ryou chuckled mockingly in the back of his throat, eyes alight with pleasure and mirth.

"Shouldn't we start with introductions first? Where are you manners _majesty_? Allow me to introduce myself. I am the thief king Bakura of what was once the village of Kura Elna in Egypt." He bowed mockingly. "And you are?"

"…"

Mou hitori no boku could give no answer as to his origin and name. He couldn't reply with the same high modality that "Bakura" did. He was doing this on purpose. My blood sizzled a little at Bakura's mockery of mou hitori no boku. He was doing all of this on purpose, to grind salt into the open gashes of mou hitori no boku's memory or lack of. To mock him about his insufficient of knowledge and tease him with this counterfeit politeness. Calling him Majesty.

"Come come now highness, did your father ever teach you basic manners? I know your mother couldn't have." He chuckled again. It was so gravely and cold, that it rose chills up my spine. "You don't remember anything do you? You're just a consolidation of everything you are without knowing what. So how many have you sentenced to death so far? How many have you tortured?"

"Silence! I will not stand for this behaviour, you bastard."

"Oh you won't? This is the behaviour you deserve and less. I'm being polite. Show some decency. Do you know how?"

"Unless you have something of value to say, leave."

"How rude. Very well then majesty, I will leave. I only came to check to make sure it was you. It's funny how I have felt no hint of your power and yet still remembered it after all these years, isn't it? Then again, it's hard to forget the taste of the power that imprisoned you. For you hospitality I will give you a gift before I leave. I'll share with you a small piece of history about yourself. Your father was a power hungry killer. Your mother was nothing but ambitious and a whore. And your soul is dirtier than them both Pharaoh."

With that he was gone in a whisper of smoke and steel, more than likely returned to the millennium ring… the object he says that mou hitori no boku trapped him in.

BOOM!

The thunder hadn't left but was far less noticeable when watching two ancient spirits, than it was contemplating things. This day just keeps getting better doesn't it? I cast my eyes quickly to my other, taller, more aesthetically pleasing, half. His head is down and he's thinking hard about what was said. Bakura had called him Pharaoh, which must've created a big thought.

Was he once a pharaoh? I mean, he has the regal air of royalty and all the things that Bakura was saying would add that up. We already basically knew he was an ancient Egyptian as he is sealed in an Ancient Egyptian puzzle, with the eye of Horus embossed on its surface, and it being in the shape of an upside-down pyramid kinda hints it too. Being of such high rank explains the why he would have the power to trap someone in an item of magic, and how he would've got them in the first place. Bakura being a Thief King, maybe that's why he was imprisoned. He was caught by the pharaoh and sealed in the Millennium Ring? But that would make it basically unusable to anyone else. Bakura controls the wearer by using the magic the ring would provide him. So really it's a curse on Bakura, and the Ring can't now be used for good unless Bakura becomes good.

Is it the same for mou hitori no boku? A wicked thing trapped in a puzzle so it couldn't be used by anyone else? Or was he a willing sacrifice to constantly control the power? But then why break it up and erase his memory? I mean Bakura hasn't lost his obviously, unless he's making things up which I wouldn't put past him. But if he was willing, why steal the memories when they would help him… well remember there in the first place… wait… the shadows stole mou hitori no boku memory. I remember him telling me, that when he was trapped in the puzzle, the shadows stole all his memories away, and he forgot everything, even what he looked like. But why wasn't Bakura treated to the same. Why didn't the shadows feast on his memory and soul, maybe the puzzle is very different from the ring.

And the bricks continue to fall from the wall, and still all you see is bricks. This is just so, why me? Because this worked so well in the past, let's mentally list the problems/occurrences:

1)There's an Evil spirit trapped in a millennium Item who has possessed and beaten a friend of mine, who goads mou hitori no boku, and seems generally insane. In my house.

2)Ryou doesn't want said evil spirit banished.

3)Mou hitori no boku and my friends just don't seem to get along well. It had all started so well when they pretended that it was all okay. What happened there?

4)There's a storm and I hate storms.

5)I don't know what to say to mou hitori no boku ri-

BOOM!

"Ah!"

A low chuckle.

"Does my aibou fear the sky noises so much?"

"Yes he does. And if you were any kind of guardian you wouldn't be laughing." I pouted gently. Though he couldn't see it through my magical anti-lightening, blanket shield. He flinched and I realised what I had said and what kind of person mou hitori no boku is. From me he takes things seriously, so saying that is like saying he isn't being a good guardian, or hasn't been previously or something.

"I apologise aibou."

"Don't."

I peel my blanket/shield off from my shoulder to sit up and I grab his hand. "Don't apologise. It was a joke okay." I smile up at him to reinforce this. His own lips start to curl in response, though slightly and slowly. Mwhaha! All must bow to the power of an infectious grin.

CRASH!

Aaaand I'm back in the blankets, eyes shut tight against the impending doom.

"I'm afraid I can't stop the lightening."

"T-That's okay." Damn stuttering. It happens to me far to often for me to be in anyway pleased with it's arrival, but at least people closed to me are so used to it that they can understand me when I kick my stuttering into overdrive.

I feel my bed dip slightly as mou hitori no boku perches on it's edge as he has previously in my hearts room. Here and now it seems different. We aren't surrounded by my room, the silence and colours of my moods. This isn't my world, it's reality. So in reality mou hitori no boku is sitting here with me, which means I can't control the weather. So it is raining outside and thundering.

BOOM!

I shudder a little and shut my eyes more, fear growing slightly. This always happens to me! Usually when it storms like this I'm in bed before it hits, and if I can't be, I'm in the same predicament as I am now. If it's really bad, I shamefully admit, I sleep in my grandpa's room. Thunder and lightening scare me okay!

I used to do it a lot when I was a kid and just didn't give up the habit. Though I don't think I've ever been awake through one since mou hitori no boku entered life. This'll be the first one he'll have encountered with me under the sheets afraid.

I'm not sure what I can do now though, the fear is growing. The next few booms and I could be a quivering heap in the corner or something. Oh dear. I hope I don't cry or anything. I've mentioned before that I'm a happy fellow and so being sad, or angry, or frightened doesn't really fit well with my nature. Though I seem to be good at being afraid and other bad things, I'm still mostly happy right?

BOOM!

AH! No, not happy, not happy!

I squeak this time and if possible, close my eyes tighter. I'm quivering so hard that were I a tree my leaves would've all fallen off. I'd be one naked, embarrassed, cold, and frightened tree, if I were a tree. Thankfully, I'm not a tree.

A hand rests on my shoulder and my rustling stops. Just the weight is comforting. The light pressing of someone else existing.

"Aibou? Are you okay?"

Okay now Yuugi, be brave! I sit up from under my sheets and give him a shaky nod.

"I-I'm fine. Th-thunder just scares me a li-"

BOOOM!

"AH!" I leap forward and hide my face in mou hitori no boku's slightly transparent chest. Wrapping my arms around him for security. And you know, I'm not so much afraid now. Because mou hitori no boku will protect me. Protect me from everything. He's much better than the magical anti-lightening blanket!….And I have my face buried in his chest.

This might've been a bit embarrassing if my small body could handle the embarrassed feeling on top of everything else. I think I kind of remind myself of a fairy… not as in spritely and happy and with the sparkly-ness, but with the fact that sometimes I'm just too small to handle too many big things at a time. Though I can handle more than them. So right now embarrassment isn't included in this one time "Emotional package" offer. Instead we include large dosages of fear, happiness and hormones, for the low low price of lethal dosages of embarrassment later and loss of intelligent/coherent/straight thought as your deposit. Thank you.

"Aibou?"

I hate lightening, mou hitori no boku is warm, and his chest is pretty firm too, but not too firm. More in the solid enough to be comfortable, but not solid to a chiselled lie-on-a-brick, way. He's pretty warm too…

"Aibou?"

CRASH!

I jump and hold on to him tighter.

"Yuugi?"

…he said my name. Again! I loosen my hold and stare back into magical glowing eyes. He said my name. Not master, aibou, or hikari (though he hasn't said that in ages), Yuugi.

"Are you alright?"

"I-I'm" I'm stuttering. "I'm f-fine. It's just the lightening-"

BOOM!

"AH!…scares me."

"Poor hikari." Speak of the devil, there's that other name again. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Mou hitori no boku's standard. He is always seeking to help me. And now while the sky is falling outside, and I'm sure they never had rain in Egypt, he's perfectly calm trying to help me. This is his first storm that I'm aware of, why isn't he at least a little anxious? I mean he's been out in the rain before, how else would he find a puddle and enough water to electrocute those thugs? But storms are different. I hate them. Hate them times a million!

I know what he could do, good thing that good ol' emotion embarrassment/bashfulness or whatever else would be involved, is on vacation.

"C-Could you… Would you lie n-next to me? Just until the storm s-stops?"

Raindrops. Otherwise there is silence… oh no, wait, I forgot the sound of my shaky breathing because of my heart rate, because of the storm.

"Of course, my aibou."

The fear has subsided just a little bit. Little enough to let a slight blush raise my facial skin temperature. But then that's overwhelmed by a little bit of extra happiness, with a dash of hormones for taste.

I uncoil my arms and dart back under my sheets, waiting in all my impatient glory for the celebrated arrival of my anti-lightening saviour to match my anti-lightening bed sheets.

He lifts the sheets slightly and climbs in under the soft fabric, lying next to me. Thank god for fear. If there wasn't all this fear inside me, than the hormones would've gone crazy, as would've the embarrassment. I'd still be happy, but being happy while being scared, and having mou hitori no boku in my bed because I was afraid, seems a lot more innocent and not just "I am master, you're my bed slave." Though I'm sure mou hitori no boku agreed because of his desire to make me happy, not just for the fact that I asked him. It was a request, not a demand. Hmm… if I told him to be my bed slave would he actually do that? I mean it's wrong and I'd never tell him to do something like that, no matter how attractive he may be, but how far does this "obedience" he has towards me, go?

BOOM!

No time for thought!

CRASH! Grumble, growl.

Faster than I could spell cat, I'm pressed and curled, right up against mou hitori no boku, quivering with fear that subsides as his warmth settles through me. He reaches a hand out, wraps it tenderly around mine, and with his other arm holds me in close to him as comfort. My hands are already knotted in his t-shirt. With the connection we have much further and deeper than this physicalness, and with my hand in his, somehow he sinks into my mind. He doesn't intrude on my thoughts, I can feel it, he just kind of… hazes the fear, sprinkles the sandman's dust into my eyes, and sends thrills of relaxation through my tensed body.

The threat of the lightening becomes less.

The thunder's not so loud and frightening, but more like the sudden hard thump of a giant's heart beat sounding in my ear.

The fear I have ebbs away, replaced with a heavy feeling of sleep and relaxation, like I'm being steeped in honey that isn't sticky and annoying, but smooth, warm, and sweet. Mou hitori no boku has replace the fear with magic. And he… He replaced the thunder.

* * *

- _My master is my existence, and I could no more harm him than I could change the journey of the sun."_ – Back in mou hitori no Yuugi's day, they would've thought that the sun journeyed across the sky and into the underworld to be reborn the next morning. So that's what he means by journey, they would've been living in a time that had a geocentric model of the heavens. As in, the sun moves around the earth, the one we use now is heliocentric, we know we move around the sun. 

Silver: The holiday's are here! I can write and write and write, right?

Wing: Nope, it's work work, write at night.

Silver: And so that could explain the lateness but the most important cause is….

Wing: Silver's stupid sister broke the network connection that connects her computer to the lounge room, to the internet. So she's had no internet access, for forever. Therefore, no new YGO episodes for the Silver. No new fanfiction to read. No new fanart. No "Play the damn card already" Nothing.

Silver: Man is it terrible. Forgive any mistakes as I am pretty darn tired from work and it's pretty damn late.

Wing: Yeah, and she's pretty damn weak.

Silver: I am not, just cos you don't work.

Wing: No I have to watch you work. It's boring!

Silver: Sorry of great one, but work doesn't stop for creativity. But hey, more money more Yu-Gi-Oh eh?

Wing: Yeah… maybe we could save up and buy the rights to it? Then we could show it how it was, and then let the greatest fanfic of the year be published into an actual set of episodes. That'd be hot…. Yeah……

Silver: Dreaming. We hope you enjoyed. And yeah… CHEERIO!


	10. Banishing

Title: Partners of the Heart

Part: 10 of ?

Author: SilverWing

Genre: Romance/angst/general?

Pairing: YxYY

Rating: Pretty PG at the moment.

Warnings: None. un-beta'd

Summary/Description: Yuugi is wondering about mou hitori no boku. Wondering just who is this spirit, living within the golden encasings of the millennium puzzle. Some how he will know who mou hitori no boku is.

Doesn't take place in the series. Uses the Japanese names. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not, never have and more than likely never will, own Yu-Gi-Oh dies a little inside.

Authors note:

Silver: Once more I've Author noted the bottom.

Banishing

Waking up after a storm, and realizing it's still raining but not thundering, is like… is like when the water in the shower finally turns warm when you're freezing and dirty. In other words, it's great. Rain is good. I like rain. I don't like wearing rain, so much as looking at it and admiring how nice it appears, but sometimes it's great to just stand in anyway.

Mou hitori no boku was gone when I woke. Retreated back within the golden gilded confines of the millennium puzzle. He kept to his word and stayed until the thunder was gone. I don't know when exactly he left me, because I was asleep and I don't think that even the evil spirit "Bakura" could've woken me. Speaking of which…

I pad gently across the hallway and peer into the guest room. My good friend, and host to one evil spirit, Ryou, is still sleeping. It's probably all the medication and just the exhaustion you get from being stuck in a bed and bored…and terribly injured. Though Grandpa promised him that tomorrow he could get out of bed. Needless to say Ryou got a bit excited about the concept. I haven't actually seen him awake since… we returned from his house after seeing the dolls and mou hitori no boku went to confront him. Last night we had the unpleasant pleasure of a visit from the malicious and mocking spirit of the millennium ring. He's… wicked. Not in the "Aw yeah, wicked!" way but in the witch cackling over a cauldron, concocting evil plans and brutalities, way.

I'm not sure what mou hitori no boku is doing in the puzzle right now, but then again it's not as though I have to be constantly aware of him and his demonic eyes, right?

Yay! Breakfast! In my wonderfully warm and plush pyjama's, I skip down the stairs and skid on the kitchen tiles with my socks. Delving into the fridge and pantry, all I'm able to find is cereal boxes, none of them containing any of my favourite kinds either. What a disappointment. Looks like toast with honey it is! Toast is good. It's magical. It has that uncanny ability of smelling a lot better than it tastes. I mean you smell toast and the cravings you get for it are unsurpassable (well for me at least). It just smells so wonderful that you just gotta have a piece! And when you finally do have your piece of toast, it smells so good with the butter melt over it but, it doesn't taste quite as good the aroma of it cooking hinted it would.

It's raining so toast is good now anyway. I lazily plop two slices of bread into the toaster, and set it to low. Our toaster only really cooks the bread on one side, evil contraption. So I have to half cook it then flip it and finish the toasty process.

Flip one.

Waiting for toast to cook. Waiting for my toast to cook. Well cooking may not be the best word… toasting is a better word. Or roasting, or heating the outside… mm heating the outside. Mou hitori no boku was warm, last night. Oh here it comes, the full force blush. I really did ask him to sleep with me and he did. Oh no pervert mind of mine, you're not going to twist what I just said because it was completely innocent. Hear that, In-no-cent. I was afraid and he was just doing what any guardian would do. Heck any big brother if I was much younger and my brother much older… well compared to the age that mou hitori no boku is I'm practically a newborn. If we were to ever… "get together", dash, "become and item" would that be something like paedophilia on his part I mean. I'm 16 and he's over 5000 years old. That's only a 4984 year difference. But then again, he hasn't aged. He still appears the same age as he would've been when he was locked away in the puzzle. How old would he have been then? Is he going to grow old at all? Or is he going to sit around while I get old and he looks the same!

Flip two.

What happens if I die of old age, or slash that, what happens if I die? Where does mou hitori no boku go? We're partners, partners of the heart and soul, what would happen to him if I were to go? Would the puzzle shatter again? Would he be locked away in the darkness or would he die too?

Flip two.

What about the spirit of the Millennium ring? If his host dies, does he die or get locked away or what? Mou hitori no boku might have the answers, but I bothered him last night, I think he should rest…

He felt so solid and warm. And under the sheets he didn't appear very transparent at all. His eyes, which glowed in the night like two unholy beacons of a darkness and mysterious blood, were so eerily attractive and intense, their power could persuade me to anything. I could've, at that moment, just lay there on the bed safe and warm with him and died in happiness. He appears so much like me but he doesn't have soft curves like mine, nor does he have hard one either. He has smooth curves, beautiful, alluring, sexy curves. I'm not hormonal at all.

This is a terrible thing isn't it? My attraction makes me biased and too willing to do everything. Is this some cruel trick? To make this incredibly impressive creature, somehow a part of me? But then again, nothing could happen really between us could it? I mean, he's a spirit in a puzzle, his voice and presence only becomes known to me when he's in my head/heart. When he…if he comes out of the puzzle can the others see him? I mean I saw Bakura, and Bakura saw mou hitori no boku, and mou hitori no boku saw Bakura… but maybe I saw him because I have an item that could be effecting my ability to see things. So would Jounouchi and Anzu be able to see him? Something tells me at the moment they don't want to see him again, but would Grandpa be able to see him?

Flip two.

Wow, how strange would that have looked last night? I mean I had my face in mou hitori no boku's chest while we were sitting on the bed, but if they couldn't see him I'd just be hugging air. That would look… slightly amusing, but mostly disturbing. But that's my take on the thing. It kind of reminds me about that joke with Superman, Wonder woman, and the Invisible Man 1.…. Can I smell toast burning?

AH! Damnit! How many times did I flip it? …I lost track. Crud. My toast is coal black and completely unsalvageable. No amount of honey will make that even half decent. Oh well, bread with honey works fine for me.

I drizzle it over, carefully paying attention so I don't daydream and drizzle it all over the bench and my hand. Once I'm satisfied with the amount of honey I have on my bread slices, smoosh them together and you have a sandwich! Ta Dah! Breakfast is served.

See, wasn't that simple. Had a problem, figured out the best course of action, executed said course of action, and now we can enjoy the fruits of the labour. Why doesn't life work that way? See a problem, find an answer, implement strategy, and enjoy. So far we've had nothing that after I think I have an answer, it turns out to go well. That first catastrophe with mou hitori no boku more than proved that. Then we've got every other meeting I've had with my friends since then. Have we even reached an answer yet? Are they still really my friends at all? What happened there?

Mm, honey, so sweet and so satisfyingly gooey. My unhappy pieces of blackened bread go in the bin with the crumbs I gather off the bench before heading back to my room satisfied with the amount of food in my belly. I scuffle past Ryou's room, only pausing to see if he's wake so I can offer him breakfast or a drink or something. He's still dead to the world.

His body lies beneath a set of pale blue sheets with turtles on them that I had received as a gift from my grandfather, when I was younger. The turtles a through back to when I was suggesting him a name for his game shop. I can't remember how long I've lived here, in this house, exactly, but I was born here in Domino.

We used to live in a run down apartment, on the northern outskirts of town. My father worked in a minor position at a small paper company, so small that the wages were just enough to cover the living costs of an apartment that was a death trap pretty much. My mother stayed home to take care of me, and my grandfather was out in the wide world, doing "god knows what" as my mother would say.

Dad's work started eating into more of his life, and he and my mother could smell a promotion on the winds, maybe to one of the much bigger paper companies. It was about this time that my Grandpa came into town, he stayed with us for few a weeks while he organised buying a business with a house attached.

I remember when we all went to look at it with him. It smelt dusty but looked clean. The store at the front was empty, and they said that the previous owners lived here and sold vacuum cleaners. Heh he, Grandpa's face scrunched up when he heard that. He liked to keep things tidy but he was still a bit wild on the inside. Not tame enough to sell vacuum cleaners, just enough to own one. He loved it, and I liked the house too. It was exciting and bigger than our own little apartment. It had a backyard too!

Grandpa started going through the buying process, using the money he'd collected on his travels. My parents laughed when he said he was turning it into a game store. Not because they thought it was stupid, but because of the person my grandpa was, they knew he would. "That or a gambling house!" my dad would laugh sometimes. He asked us what we should call it.

I remember just yelling "Turtle! Turtle! Turtle!" over and over again, bouncing up and down excitedly around the threesome. My dad told me to shush down and not be so loud and excitable, but grandpa, his eye's sharper back then, just knelt down to my level and said "You think turtle's a good name Yuugi?"

I nodded enthusiastically, I don't know why but at the time turtle was just great, I had a slight fixation with turtles at the time. They walked with a home around them, a safe home they could recoil into when in danger. How cool is that? When I told him that he smiled and looked up thoughtfully "The turtle game shop." He murmured to himself, voice smoother and younger than now. "I like it, Turtle it is."

I was so ecstatic they were actually going to call it turtle I couldn't sit still for a week. And when he finally opened with the store sign out the front proudly proclaiming this as "The Turtle Game Shop", I didn't stop being excited for a month. So for my birthday that year, my grandfather found it… meaningful, to give me a blue bed sheet with turtles on it.

It was about two weeks after that that my father got the promotion, and we were going to move into a house and leave the apartment, because we could finally afford it. And the week after that, while my parents were packing up the house for moving, the apartment bellow us exploded, and took the whole building with it. A bit of faulty wiring and leaving the gas on, mixed with an absent minded man who smokes three packs a day, was the doom of nearly everyone in the complex. While people didn't exactly mourn for the people crushed in the falling rubble of the building (though I think three people on the opposite side of the apartment building survived) it made the news for weeks. Some had been appealing to the local council to get it demolished as it was becoming more dangerous to live in as the time wore on, but the council never made a move, so fate did. Fate's move killed my parents, but I survived because I had packed my stuff, and wanted to stay at my grandpa's so I couldn't get recruited into packing anything else.

Luckily I had brought my turtle blanket with me. My Grandpa gave me the puzzle then, well… after the funeral. He said it was to help me get my mind off them when I felt really sad and just needed to do something. And it did, it kept me engrossed for the eight years it took me to solve it. So in yet another way, mou hitori no boku and this puzzle was my saviour. It's been with me through the toughest periods of my life. Through bullying and death. Through the enormous feeling of inadequacy that comes with my small height and light body build. He can't see how much I owe him. In a way, we saved each other.

I trundle on into my room, I'm not going outside or anything today, so I don't see the point in getting dressed, in fact I could probably sleep in and Grandpa would let me. Or… I could visit mou hitori no boku in my soul room, or his if he'll let me go in there.

We've progressed a fair way haven't we? I'm no closer to the who of mou hitori no boku, but I've improved on the what. We've become closer as well. He used my name twice yesterday. _Twice!_ It sounded so good too. He made it sound like a good name. He also called me hikari yesterday for the first time in a long long time. We're taking steps forward. We haven't really had a "conversation" or "interaction" since the night that Ryou was taken into hospital.

…That night. Things moved quickly. One minute I was talking to mou hitori no boku, saw a piece of history in his eyes, grabbed his wrist, he grabbed mine. I don't know why the wrists are different than hands though but, we had a sort of moment. A small space of time in which everything was spinning around so fast it was going in slow motion. We were so incredibly close, and then Grandpa woke us up, we had to go to the hospital. We got Ryou, brought him back and mou hitori no boku tried to speed up his body's natural healing speed. I don't think shadow magic can be used for actual healing but can make the body naturally heal faster. Then mou hitori no boku was thinking about the encounter and was worried and brooding a little over it, and was clinging beneath my skin alert for danger as I went to Ryou's. I picked up Ryou's clothes, saw the dolls, mou hitori no boku took over confronted Ryou. That night I went to bed completely freaked out and thinking about things. Next day we went and saw my friends, then there was the storm that followed and the meeting with Bakura, so not really a time to talk.

Maybe we could talk now. Talk about the "encounter" we had not so long ago in my soul room. Grandpa will believe I've gotten up, eaten and gone back to bed, it's a habit of mine when I wake up to rain. I sleep in, eating so my stomach doesn't wake me.

Right.

I settle myself in the sheets, curl up, back to the door. Although I love my bed, my hearts room bed is so much more comforting because it's responsive to my mood. Closing my eyes, I let go of the outside, of the attachment to every limb, untie each string that makes my body move, and wake in my hearts room. This has gotten so much easier for me. I'm so pleased.

Getting out of my bed, the soft sheets rustling, the walls lightly glowing a pale white sort of colour. I step over a game that was still set up in the middle of my room for some unknown reason, and head towards the door.

The gouge marks are still there. They haven't scarred over; the wood stubbornly holds the marks. Those terrible, frightening marks.

_Flashback_

_I look around at the glowing pale white walls and plush violet carpet. It's a little more orderly than my room in reality I note before my door flings open and suddenly my arms are full of a quivering mass of trembling muscles, cold and clammy skin, and a million whispered words._

"M-Master. I'm sorry. I'm sorry Master. Forgive me. Master. Please. My Master. I-I won't close you off again. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Forgive me. I'm sorry. Master, Master please. Don't send me to them again. Please…please."

_It takes me a few moments to recognise that this body, that voice, and all this fear is radiating from…_

"_Mou hitori no boku?"_

"_I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please master… please…"_

_What did I do? I can't understand. I don't understand. I never understand. I look down at mou hitori no boku and gasp. Ugly purple bruising and sore red rashes in bands around his upper arms mar his perfect tan skin. The hem of his leather pants torn, and more bands are visible around his ankles. His arms are around me so tightly, so securely that I can also see his wrists bearing the same marks. If I didn't know any better I would say they were from fighting against cold iron shackles!_

"_Mou hitori no boku… what happened to you?"_

_He shakes more, panicked, afraid, still clinging to me as if at any moment I'll disappear._

"_I-I p-promise," he's stuttering. Oh mou hitori no boku, don't stutter. What's wrong? "th-that I'll never run away f-from you again. I-I'll never b-b-block you again. I-I'll do what ever it is you w-want me to. Just please master. Please."_

…

_There were gouge marks running along the floor and into the doorframe. Not too deep, just enough to be caused by human fingernails, frantic human fingernails. Suddenly it strikes me. That scream, before the puzzle was taken from my room. I thought I'd imagined it but it must to have been mou hitori no boku, screaming to me from inside my hearts room…and then dragged out from it, back into the shadows._

End Flashback 

I shudder at the memory of that face of mou hitori no boku. I hope I never have to see him like that. Ever _ever_ again.

"M-Mou hitori no boku?"

My voice is timid as I call for him into the hallway. That memory had stirred me a little. I can't believe that it still has such an effect, but then again why wouldn't it. Mou hitori no boku was completely destroyed.

"Yes, aibou?"

I turn my eye's upward, not having realised that he was standing opposite me and I had started looking at the ground.

He isn't smiling exactly, without smiling he is. Even though his eyes are still impassive strongholds, wrought of shining rubies and blood, and his mouth and face are all drawn into an expression that is an expression without an expression, he looks happy. There's a trace amount of care and joy in his eyes and face without it actually being there. I don't know, my eyes, my body is telling me, but my mind is looking for a how I know. Maybe it's our mental link, maybe my ability to read him has surpassed my ability to comprehend, my it's because I'm seeing his soul and he's saying mine. I don't know.

His body is still as perfect as ever as well. And after the brief memory flash I had, I notice that his arms are now completely devoid of any marks. It's back to looking perfect.

"I… I wanted to talk to you… about that night… when Ryou was put in hospital. Before Grandpa came and got me."

I'm not very confident and the words come out a mumble. For shame Yuugi, for shame. But at least I didn't stutter right? That's a small point bonus for me. I watch him carefully as he nods in consent and leans his back against the doorframe, settling in comfortably. His arms fold neatly over his chest, and before I know it, I'm spitting words rapidly to him.

"It's just that, that night I had experienced a moment before as you and then there was the whole wrist thing – what is with that by the way, what's so special about a wrist?- and then Grandpa interrupted, but I guess I'm just a little anxious and unsure of what happens now. I mean we haven't really had time to talk and I still don't really know who you are and you still don't have a name which is a bit confusing, though Bakura probably knows it and we could ask him but he'd never give it to us, and then you went quiet after you attempted healing, and then quiet after Bakura came, and I wanted to thank you for staying with me through the storm. I was also wondering why you stay in the puzzle so much when if the puzzle gets taken away you're trapped in there and it's torturous, I mean why would you go back in there willingly when there are monsters and all those other things and that you were trapped there. If you remember nothing than how do you know how to use magic like you do?"

Breathe, breathe. In and out, in and out. How on earth did I manage to say all that with my little lungs I have no idea, I hope he understood what I said. It was mangled and all over the place. Damn, there goes presenting myself clearly. He blinks as his head catches up, or maybe it's just in surprise at the speed and urgency I'd said everything. And then, he just answers.

"The magic, I know how to use out of instinct and instinct alone. It's not really remembering as it's subconscious to me, as though the magic is an extension of myself. As for the puzzle," he motions elegantly to the door, "my existence is as dependent upon that as it is upon you. If I were to have a body, that would be it, the puzzle is my shell as your mortal body is yours. It houses my soul and so I must return to it or I will weaken, it is the home of my soul as your body is yours."

He closes his eyes, tilts his head back, focusing on what he's going to say next. How to answer.

"As for my identity and _Bakura_," wow, way to snarl a name mou hitori no boku, "I don't know if he speaks the truth but, the way in which he speaks to me, insults and mocks me, tells me that there is a truth to what he is saying to an extent. He would be from my time, and him saying that I trapped him in the Ring is more than likely true for the bitterness he holds in being trapped there is the same bitterness to me for trapping him. There's no lie there. Him giving me the title of Pharaoh, the contemptuous use of that title when he was speaking to me, also gives that it is true. He named himself a Thief King, which gives him more reason to hate an upholder and creator of law, more reason to hate me. Just seeing him, I know I've seen him before and that I hated him, even if I can't remember why. I wouldn't ask him for my name, the one he answers with more than likely wouldn't be my true name, but rather an insult from a culture I can't remember."

He let out a tired sigh. I have a feeling he's been tracing these thoughts in his mind for a while. Letting them buzz around his head as he tried to find a way to regain the memories he lost, or at least gain some knowledge about why he lost that time. He brings his head back down and opens his eyes, they appear tired for a second before they are concealed as usual. His guard's down when his eyes are closed, so either way you can't see what he's feeling and thinking in his eyes. I feel the indescribable need to fidget as he gazes levelly at me, and a smile ghosts his lips for a brief moment.

After that "smile" he removes himself from the doorframe to stand directly before me. My heart rate skips up a notch at the closeness and the intensity of his presence, his eyes washing over me. "As for the wrist being a point of… weakness."

He reaches down, carefully grabbing the back of my hand and lifting it, so the soft under belly of my wrist is presented between us. It's practically eye-level with me as I note the small smirk upon his lips.

"We are partners to the core my aibou, and so our bodies respond… _differently_ to each other. More in harmonics than the medley that usually occurs2. On the underside of your wrist is a strong pulse point, the veins not to far from the skin, a main artery where you can feel the hearts beating. It's a point of life and in touching it, to the soul it is symbolic. Touching it, as a soul touching another, is different, as it is sensitive to the heart and the energy flow in your metaphysical body. Cut here and you would bleed to death, a weak point never shown to an opponent. As a soul you wouldn't bleed to death, but you'd die a little. That is why a wrist is special. A place where the heart is closer to the skin, easier to reach."

His smile was more predominant on his face as he brushed his lips over the vein in my wrist, a pulse sent through my body in reaction.

"O-Oh."

That was a dreadful squeak Yuugi, dreadful. It's awfully warm in here. My eyes skit over to look at my heart room, the walls a softly glowing red (probably to match my cheeks) and I know it's warm in there.

He gently lowers my hand, releasing it to let it softly flop to my side. This affection, from my other, it's so much softer than how my friends would perceive of him.

"Oh, and as for me comforting you during the storm, aibou. You needn't to be thankful to me. I'm glad that you would ask me to comfort you and I enjoy the chance I had to make you happy. I don't like it when you're frightened."

Suddenly mou hitori no boku pulled a dramatic pose. The kind I'd seen in many of my manga's and one that occasionally Jounouchi would pull before dashing off to do something "heroic" and gain the attention of the girls. He had one hand in a fist brought back against his side, around the bottom of his ribs. The other hand was thrust mightily into the air to the upper right, mou hitori no boku's head turning to look that way as well. The rest of his body was in the brave, masculine, strongman stance of an action figure. His face was pulled from its normal seriousness into an extreme.

"As your guardian and eternal servant, I shall protect thee against all the forces of evil!"

His voice was a dramatic bellow. What on earth?

While his head was faced forward, his eye glanced down at me, sparkling, no joke, sparkling with mirth and amusing mischief. His mouth suddenly couldn't pull off the heroic stern gaze and broke into a smothered sort of smile.

Did…did mou hitori no boku, just make some form of joke?

I began to chuckle, I couldn't help it. It was comical and overly dramatic, and I knew that mou hitori no boku had intended it to be that way. Maybe he's been spending too much time in my hearts room with my collection of Manga, maybe he spent too much time watching me read it. Who knows, but it was so funny! Even more so coming from the stoic being trapped inside my millennium puzzle.

He slowly relaxed his stance, turning to face me once again, chuckling softly as I began to all out laugh.

No one could have made that pose, and action catch phrase, as funny as mou hitori no boku did. It was all too funny. I lightly clutched at my stomach, the softer sound of his chuckle in my ears. I was going to lock that sound, the sound of his laugh, and the memory of his pose, away forever in a small little treasure box inside my heart. Calming down a little I'm finally able to praise his wonderful comedy attempt.

"Mou hitori no boku, that was beautiful."

He chuckles a little, eyes twinkling. "Thank you."

Authors Note:

Okay if you haven't heard the joke here it is but be warned it's a bit bawdy:

While attending a Superhero convention in America, Superman found himself bored one day and decided to peer into the next room with his X-ray vision, the room in which Wonder Woman was staying. As he looked through the wall he saw Wonder Woman lying naked on her bed, tossing her head and moaning. Well, with inhuman speed, Superman launched out of the door, slammed into Wonder Woman's room, dropped his pants and plunged himself on top of Wonder Woman. You can imagine how surprised Wonder Woman was by the intrusion, and how even more surprised the Invisible Man was.

Righty now, if you know anything about music you'll know what these mean. Harmonics are the same sound at a different pitch, in harmony. Usually people are singing a different "song" to everyone else, and I meant a medley between people in that some songs will fit over the top together. You know those ones where people are singing two sets of lyrics over the top of each other but it still sounds good? Well yeah like that. Because mou hitori no Yuugi and Yuugi are part of the same "soul" then the "song" would be the same, so they'd be singing in harmony, Yuugi's voice lighter than his others deeper one you know… that sort of thing.

Silver: Well I suppose you're all sitting there thinking "but wait a second I thought the chapter was called Banishing? But…nothing was banished at all! They didn't even talk about it! What's going on? Your title has no sense or relevance!" Well, it does.

Wing: See as fun as it is to destroy Yuugi's life piece by piece, unless he gets some cheer in his system he goes bad.

Silver: So we created a banishing for him

Wing: We got rid of some doubts and lightened mou hitori no Yuugi up a little bit so they get to be more secure with each other 'cause this is the main theme thing to this story.

Silver: The worlds falling apart around Yuugi's ears, and to stop him from falling apart we have mou hitori no Yuugi there, but it doesn't work unless Yuugi knows more about him and their relationship solidifies. This whole story is about Yuugi getting to know who his other half is.

Wing: As Yuugi's said he's a happy kind of guy so bad things don't settle well with him, so that means that mou hitori no Yuugi can't be serious all the time, so we let a bit of his fun side out, banishing some of the… dips in their relationship. We broke a wall, well mou hitori no Yuugi did. Did ya check out that stance man? POWER! He could've broken a wall with that stance!

Silver: hehe, yeah that was awesome. But as Wing was saying, Yuugi needs to just get happy sometimes, and as his other half, mou hitori no Yuugi should recognise that need, not to mention want to cheer him up, and do something he knows Yuugi will find funny. He knows how to take care of his master ;)

Wing: Thank you to all of those who've been reviewing and putting up with this stories pattern of updates.

Silver: We hope you enjoyed and while we're not going to command you to review

Wing: We would appreciate it.

Silver: Catch you at the next one!


	11. The Heartache

Title: Partners of the Heart

Part: 11 of ?

Author: SilverWing

Genre: Romance/angst/general?

Pairing: YxYY

Rating: Pretty PG at the moment.

Warnings: None. un-beta'd

Summary/Description: Yuugi is wondering about mou hitori no boku. Wondering just who is this spirit, living within the golden encasings of the millennium puzzle. Some how he will know who mou hitori no boku is.

Doesn't take place in the series. Uses the Japanese names. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not, never have and more than likely never will, own Yu-Gi-Oh dies a little inside.

Authors note:

Silver: Once more I've Author noted the bottom.

The Heartache

You know, I'm sixteen. I don't look it, but I am. So if I don't grow soon, I'm going to be this height for the rest of my life. That's… kind of disappointing, but I guess I should've expected it. If it weren't for bad luck, then I'd have no luck at all. I wonder where all my luck went. Was it all just flitted away when I was a child? Was it all used up when I happened to be at my Grandfathers place instead of my home when that explosion happened?

Maybe that's it. When you're born you have two big buckets of luck. Bad luck, and good luck, and the good luck that ends up bad goes in the bad bucket and vice versa. When I was a kid I whittled away my good luck bucket, or maybe it sprung a leak. That'd be just my luck. And I never really had much bad luck as I kid; I had good luck in friends for my young young years. Everyone liked to play games back then. And then the explosion I avoided stole it all away. I practically emptied the bucket for that one. The next luck, was the puzzle… but then again… if my parents hadn't died, would grandpa have given me the puzzle? He told me it was dangerous thing, and the reason he gave it to me was to help take my mind of my parents. The consequences could be dealt with at a later date, as it was worth it to help a grieving child. So if they hadn't died, I could be living in a big house, my dad with his promotion, my mother telling me to hurry up in the morning, instead of grandpa in an apron. But would I have got the puzzle? Would I have used bursts of helplessness, hopelessness, and sorrow, to help build it? Would I've had a better life, and friends? My good luck not all used up?

But… if I never received the puzzle, mou hitori no boku would've been trapped in the darkness for longer than he already had been. I wouldn't have the other half of my soul… my heart partner. I wouldn't have met him…

What would it be like if I hadn't met mou hitori no boku and solved the puzzle? All those bullies, they'd be alive, well sane, or as sane as they can be, and still beating me I imagine… but what about Jounouchi and Anzu? I used to think that my wish of friends was granted with them, when I solved the puzzle. But... I had them, and then they went away, well they didn't agree with mou hitoir no boku. So was mou hitori no boku really the friend I wished for, not Jounouchi and Anzu?

"What if"'s huh? They'll drive you crazy.

Heh, it occurs to me that Ryou has had sort of the same. Two members of his family stolen, and through the consequences of their death, he got the ring. His father gave it to him, but his father wouldn't have found it if he hadn't have left after the death of his wife and daughter. Ryou might never have got the ring. Somehow, two members had to die, hardships and hurt had to come before we could get them. But at least the spirit I have was nice, not crazy like Ryou's. His luck has just stayed bad. But then again, when first encountering mou hitori no boku, he seemed like bad luck, but really he was good luck in bad packaging. Is Bakura the same? I mean at least Ryou knows he'll never be killed because a homicidal spirit will take over and stop his death from happening. And the dolls were either a) sick and twisted mental games or b) an insane way of keeping Ryou from being lonely. Probably both. Or maybe one of them is a disguise for the other. He doesn't want Ryou to be lonely and without friends, but he's a deranged lunatic and so just did what he thought was right, or maybe doesn't want to spoil his "I am tough king!" image. I shouldn't hold so much prejudice when I've only met him once. But Ryou was afraid of him, tried to get rid of him. The very reason he's in my home right now is because he beat Ryou to a pulp!

I wonder… do you always have to loose something to gain something? I mean in physics, we're taught energy cannot be created, only transformed or transferred. So did it cost me my parent's lives to get mou hitori no boku? To create the sadness that was the energy I needed to solve the puzzle? Fate?

I just lost two close friends, what do I gain? I have begun gaining a better relationship with mou hitori no boku. Maybe that was my trade, my friends for an increased relationship with my heart partner. Maybe I've received a truer partnership for it. I've at least gained some knowledge about him.

I shift in my position on the windowsill, tracing the patterns of raindrops with my eyes, relishing the cool feel of the glass on my bare arms. My chest expands against my legs, eyes half-closed. It's been raining for three days now. I've been moping for a while now. Yesterday Jounouchi called me. The basic run-down of the conversation was "This is too weird for me. I don't think I really want to see much of you Yug'. I still want to be your friend, and if you need me you can call me, but part from that…" so simply put, until he get's over mou hitori no boku, we're more associates than friends. Jounouchi was speaking for Anzu too he said. Anzu herself didn't want to call in case it was too awkward, the warning from mou hitori no boku about her upsetting me still fresh in her mind no doubt.

I'm back to being friendless. Except for Ryou. Speaking of Ryou, at the moment he's down in the lounge room. Sleeping off the flush of success and accomplishment he experienced by taking a shower, walking to the kitchen, making himself a cup of tea (with help) and walking in to the lounge room. It was so… uplifting to see the smile on his face. He had done it. He had panted slightly walking to the lounge room, his body still not able to cope with much movement, but he had done it! Gotten out of that bed.

"As nice as it is Yuugi, looking at turtles and the walls of your guest room all day is driving me nuts."

His voice was so polite as he said it too. Maybe... through the loss of my friends, I gained a new friend. Maybe a better friend. Someone who understands better. Though his understanding and opinions of spirits in objects will be different. My reaction to the mention more of a purr, his a screech of terror.

Another sigh grapples its way past my lips to fog the window slightly, obscuring my view of the small rivers sliding along the glassy plane.

You know what's good about rain? I have an excuse not to go outside. I mean, if we're out of something usually I run down to the store, in the rain it can wait. This means less chance of running into the nasty people of the world who make it their mission to find me. I haven't been beaten in a while… hmm if I ever start to miss that, I think I'll check myself into the school councillor and she can recommend me a therapist. Then again, news travels pretty fast. I wonder if all the "justice" that my other has taken upon himself to deal on my behalf has got the story across that Yuugi Mouto just became somewhat dangerous to bully. I hope so. Mainly for their sake. I don't know what mou hitori no boku does exactly, but I'm really sure it isn't very good. But I guess I'm somewhat okay with that. It's just what he does, though he hasn't done anything particularly cruel in a while… and I heard the last punishment he dealt wasn't too bad compared to his early work.

I wonder if he ever gets bored. Or lonely? Well we're never really alone are we? I mean the mental connection between us isn't all the way closed, I can feel it. It feels, well the best description would be a window that's been left open a crack. The window isn't wide open, just a gap big enough to allow some of the breeze in, to maintain some awareness of the others existence. I can sense he's there, I don't know what he's feeling or thinking, and I imagine unless I open the window a little more, stick my mouth to it and call to him, he can't hear my thoughts either. The link is always like this, a gentle, quiet static. Breezes allowing awareness of existence, nothing more. If he or I were to feel anything violently, like terror, or overwhelming giddiness, then that would burst it's way through the window. Well at least, that's my understanding.

You know, he takes better care of me than I realise, especially now that we've gotten closer. Take two days ago, for example. He pulled that dramatic and hilarious pose. When I asked him about it later, because it was so far out of his character and so unexpected, he just said I was sad. His excuse for that was that, he hadn't felt me as really happy in a while. Hadn't heard me laugh or seen me smile in a while. He doesn't like me being low, so he did that to make me smile. He confessed that he didn't know that I would find it as funny as I did, but he had hoped. See he takes care of me. Mou hitori no boku, wouldn't let me stay in a funk for too long. I don't know how he could know I hadn't really smiled or laughed in a while, and I didn't even notice how serious and monotone low my thoughts had become, how weighted. I hadn't had a moment of carefree-ness in a while. But he noticed, and he didn't like it, so he fixed it.

Another example of how much mou hitori no boku cares about me. If only everyone else could see it. See how well he treats me. He hasn't called me master in ages either, nope. And then there was that kiss on my wrist. I shudder. It's not a bad shudder, no way, it's a good "That gave me tingles" shudder.

"Yuugi?"

Guess Ryou's awake. I turn my head towards the lounge room, as I'm sitting in the dinning room (the only room with a windowsill big enough for me to sit on like this).

"Yeah Ryou?"

"Can you come here, please?"

I groan my way off my seating, stretching as I wander into the lounge room, eye's going to Ryou immediately.

He's lying on the couch, his upper body propped up a little so he's in more of a seated position. He's still wearing a lot of the bandages he came in wearing (not meaning we haven't changed them, just that they're still in the same quantity). The one across one side of his face only letting me see one of his eyes, though his hair is softer and smoother now after his shower. He isn't wearing a T-shirt, it isn't really necessarily, and the position and movement of his arms makes it difficult for him to put one on and take it off, so he decided not to bother. He's wearing enough bandages anyway. His chest and one shoulder is nothing but white cotton. One of his arms is white as well. Bakura really did do a number on him.

"We haven't really talked much since I got here. The only real conversation we had you weren't even there for." Referring to the time mou hitori no boku burst in and confronted him about the dolls with souls in his home.

"Well you've needed a lot of rest Ryou. You took quite a beating from him." His single visible eye, glazes over a bit. Oops, bad turn Yuugi.

"Yeah… so tell me Yuugi, your grandpa said you went out to see your friends not too long ago. How's it all going?"

I sigh though my throat has clenched, and my heart thuds hard against my chest for a brief second.

"Not too good. Jounouchi wanted to talk to mou hitori no boku, and that was… almost disastrous."

"Almost?"

"Well he still has his soul and mind intact. So it wasn't completely disastrous."

He nods and a ghost of a smile whispers across his lips.

"But I got a phone call from him yesterday, just saying basically, that now we're more associates than friends, and the same with Anzu. Until they learn to deal with mou hitori no boku, they're not going to be around me unless I really need help. Though I don't think there will be a time when I need their help like that because I have mou hitori no boku, and I think they know that too."

"Oh Yuugi…"

"Nah, it's fine. I mean… I've been without them before, lived life before them. Right?"

"That's right. If they can't deal, they can't deal. You still got me at least, eh Yuugi? Though I don't know how difficult _he's_ going to make it."

"…I, well we, met him."

"You mean you could see him?"

"Yeah… the night of that storm, he showed up in my room. He said his name was Bakura, and he was a thief king of ancient Egypt. He kept calling mou hitori no boku things like "your majesty" and "highness" but it was all mockery. He said mou hitori no boku was a pharaoh and trapped him in the ring. Mou hitori no boku doesn't like him at all, seems the feelings mutual, but he hasn't come around again since then. He said he was just making sure that the magic he felt belonged to the person he thought it did. Maybe it won't be so bad, if Bakura takes over and tries something, mou hitori no boku can defend me."

"I suppose so. He's been rather quiet, but that's normal when I'm talking about "hearing", I mean I haven't felt him as strongly as I've been able to recently. He's deep in the ring somewhere. He and your pharaoh obviously don't get along very well and want to avoid each other."

My Pharaoh…

"Yeah… I guess we're the best company we can have, eh Ryou?"

A smile. "I suppose so. But I don't mind at all, you're a good friend Yuugi."

I smile back. "You too Ryou. You too."

Xx later that night xX

"You talked to Ryou today."

My bed dips slightly as he sits himself upon its edge. Yup, I'm supposed to be fast asleep but instead opted to go and hang out in my soul room. I'm too awake to sleep anyway.

"Yeah. He was up and about today, though I don't think his spirit's going to let us speed up his healing."

I sigh, nuzzling my head further into my pillow, lying on my belly.

"I wouldn't think that Bakura would let us."

Mou hitori no boku really doesn't like Bakura. He had a growl in his voice just saying his name. Bad Karma.

"Are you still upset about yesterday, with Jounouchi hikari?"

I look over my shoulder and cast him a curious gaze.

"Shouldn't you be able to sense things like that?"

"Yes, but I didn't want to intrude. I thought it more polite to ask."

I smile.

"Oh, well not really. Talking with Ryou today kind of cheered me up."

"That's good."

"Yeah…you need a name."

It really wasn't as random as it sounds. Mou hitori no boku really does need a name. I mean Bakura has a name. He stiffens slightly.

"It's not that I don't like you being mou hitori no boku, it's just that you have so many names for me. Hikari, aibou, Yuugi." I choose to leave master out of that list and not comment on how he's only twice used my name. "But you have only one name, and it's not really a name."

He relaxes a bit, understanding flitting over his eyes for a brief moment. "Then what name would you give me?"

"Well…" Darn I hadn't thought of this. "I'm not sure…if I could remember any Egyptian god names, then I'd give you one of theirs, but the only Egyptian name I can think of is Tutankhamen, and he was a pharaoh. Though I don't think I should give you someone else's name… hmm… well… if I'm your hikari, that must make you my yami right? So maybe I could call you Yami. Yami, the nameless Pharaoh."

The bed sheets move as mou hitori no boku clenches a fist, fingers tangling in the fabric and tugging them in. His eyes become distant.

"Mou hitori no boku?"

No response.

"Mou hitori no boku?"

Still no response. Oh horse crap! Not again! Bad luck or what!

His face creases as though he's trying to focus on something far away, even though he doesn't seem to be looking at anything. His posture hasn't changed except for his back straightening a little. His eyes are so focused and his face pulled into concentration.

"Mou hitori no boku?"

I sit up and slide over to the edge he's sitting on, hesitantly putting a hand on his shoulder. Not his wrist, I remember last time I did that.

"What's wrong?"

"…aibou. Listen."

His fingers untangle and, without loosing his concentrated stare at something far away, he reaches for me and grips my shoulder. The black and gold I remember from the last time that mou hitori no boku showed me something begin rushing their way up my neck. It's okay Yuugi, breath, breathe, you've done this before. You know what's going to happen and what's not. I feel it slide its way up further, though they don't head for my mouth, nose, and eyes, just for my ears.

There is a whistling silence before suddenly I can hear whatever it is that mou hitori no boku is hearing right now, though there are no images or anything, just voices.

"_Nameless…pharaoh who is nameless… the best way. No name - pharaoh! - no existence. My King are you sure - carve it off the walls – help us pharaoh - hereby nameless. This is the only - where else would it - destroy all the records of - seal away the - nameless pharaoh - my pharaoh! Save me – save us – the darkness comes for – give up your name – may a nameless person be forgotten – it's for the good of my people that I become – we seal away the - nameless pharaoh."_

The voices cease and the whistling returns. Man that sounds annoying. It reminds me of sometimes when people turn on the TV and there's nothing on, it's a blank channel, and there's just a high pitched whistling sound. I'm relieved when it fades out, the black and gold retreating from my ear canal. With a large exhale of a breath I hadn't even remembered holding, the blank and gold strips leave my body completely and mou hitori no boku lets go of me. Without any other movement he puts his arm back at his side and falls backwards onto my bed, glazed eyes staring at the ceiling. It's not so easy to breathe right now. Man is he okay!

I turn around quickly, leaning over the top of him to gaze into his eyes and check for life. I hope something bad didn't happen, like last time. It was the same thing, lots of voices. All fragmented and trying to speak at once. All different voices, but they weren't like the others. The last time the voices were just calling him evil, but these voices were different. I hope he's okay…

"Mou hitori no boku… mou hitori no boku!"

I call trying to grab his attention. Oh no, feel the panic creeping up. I lean over him a little more and he seems to see right through me. That's not slightly frightening. I wave a hand in front of his eyes, calling to him again before having to use it to support my upper body above his. No response still. His mind is a million miles away, and then he smiles.

"A piece. I got a piece of memory back. I remember, distantly, that they had to take my name away, wipe out all records of my life, so that they could forget I was ever there and that I ever existed. But it was for the best. I'm unable to remember why, but I have a feeling that I had to, it was important. But it doesn't matter that I can't remember it all or that it's unclear." His smile grows a little bigger. "I remembered something!"

His eyes snap out of focus and lock on to mine. There's happiness glowing at their edges, threatening to overwhelm the strong fortifications usually in place. He really cares about his memory huh? But then again, it must be terrible to not be able to remember why you've been imprisoned in the dark for a couple of thousand years.

"I wasn't trapped a criminal. That memory, I did it… as a sacrifice. I wasn't some wicked ruler who was trapped by his people, I was doing it to save them from something."

His smile grows a little wider. I never realised he thought like that, but then again I've been guilty of those thoughts about him. I can't remember if I ever thought that perhaps being trapped in a dark abyss might have made him slightly less sane, and not the same as when he was put in the puzzle. That maybe his "justice" was what got him trapped in the puzzle in the first place. But now we know, he was good, self-sacrificing and not some bloodthirsty demon. Even though he has the eyes for it, I wonder if they were like this before his entrapment? I wonder if he was so serious, but he probably was very serious from his time as pharaoh, and they did have a death penalty for criminals, which would help explain his justice. What if the Pharaoh and mou hitori no boku/Yami are two different people now? Because of being trapped in the puzzle he's had to make himself anew, with only the instincts and the moral encoding on his soul remaining. Nothing more, because the shadows stole everything else held in memory.

I look down at him, and does any of that matter? It doesn't matter if he was the same as he is now. This is the person I have with me now, and time changes everything. But at least now he has some comfort in knowing that he wasn't an evil ruler.

Ruby eyes, blood red glowing eyes, are suddenly more alight with emotion than they've ever been before. They're just so breath taking. Have I ever said how gorgeous he is? Mou hitori no boku, now dubbed Yami? Well if I have, times it by fifty and now it's almost an accurate description of how amazing he is now. He has a smile and eyes, and he's just so amazing and, and… lying beneath me… when did that happen?

Oh yeah, when I was checking to make sure he was okay.

Suddenly he lunges forward and wraps his arms around me, pulling me down with him as he collapses back on the bed. He's getting crazier by the day! Ack!

He holds me tightly to his chest, I can't help it, his joy is infectious and I smile and laugh a little at his sudden exuberance. Last time this happened, that there were voices in his head, it didn't feel much like a long lost memory, but more like the voices of torment. Maybe last time it was just the shadow's he heard, remembered from when he was trapped, this time it was an actual memory of the time before his entrapment. This time, though the voices were disjointed and everything, there were no other complications either, he just got some memory back, and one of those voices sounded like him!

"I got a memory back."

He murmurs the phrase happily in my ear, arms still wrapped snugly around me. I can feel the smile on his face. He's so warm, and so close. I can feel the inevitable blush creeping up on me. He gets more amazing by the day, first the joke and now, this happiness. He's just so incredible, dangerous, exciting, mysterious, and right now so happy I can hardly believe this is him. Talk about extremes and bouts of being complete bipolar.

But god, I love this man.

* * *

Authors Note:

Silver: I don't know if he's said it before, and if he hasn't then go Yuugi!

Wing: Admitting love.

Silver: And Yes! We gave the Yami a name, typing mou hitori no boku for 11 chapters has been getting rather tiring, not to mention there's the fear I'll stuff up writing it.

Wing: So, this chapter Yuugi's cuts his loses, if that's the right term to use.

Silver: hehehe, hey Wing do you remember when someone thought English was our second language?

Wing: Yeah, we speak English good like so much.

Silver: But it was as a review how wack is that?

Wing: Wack… but off topic.

Silver: Oops, yes back to this chapter we just wrote. It was mostly inspired by this phrase: _If it weren't for bad luck, then I'd have no luck at all._

Wing: Silvers been reciting it to herself all week.

Silver: yup, so that started the chapter, and as no writers block really hunkered down upon us, we managed to get this one done a bit faster than previously.

Wing: It's called "The Heartache" for a few reasons. Yuugi at the start isn't happy, he's lost some friends, and as a result is a bit down in the dumps, and thinking about his parents too. You know, when something bad happens you have to compare it to every other bad thing to have happened to you or something like that.

Silver: Rain helps that contemplativeness. But heartache, your heart can ache with other things. It doesn't always have to be pain; it can ache with happiness as Yami's heart is at recovering a memory. This chapter ends in a pretty happy way mostly now we get the fluff ball rolling a bit faster, leaps and bounds.


	12. Leftover

Title: Partners of the Heart

Part: 12 of ?

Author: SilverWing

Genre: Romance/angst/general?

Pairing: YxYY

Rating: Pretty PG at the moment.

Warnings: None. un-beta'd

Summary/Description: Yuugi is wondering about mou hitori no boku. Wondering just who is this spirit, living within the golden encasings of the millennium puzzle. Some how he will know who mou hitori no boku is.

Doesn't take place in the series. Uses the Japanese names. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not, never have and more than likely never will, own Yu-Gi-Oh dies a little inside.

Authors note: See end.

* * *

**Chapter 12: Left Over**

Two weeks, the doctors say, and Ryou will be able to be completely self-reliant again. Be able to move out of the Mouto household and into his own apartment with the dusty rooms. But he's been at my house for a good two weeks or more, I haven't really kept count, and he's worried.

"Yuugi."

"Yes Ryou?"

"I-I want to ask you a favour, and it'll be fine if you say no it's just…"

Apprehension rises up a little, not too much because as a general rule, Ryou Bakura doesn't ask for much at all without the expectation of someone saying no. At the very beginning he wasn't even comfortable asking for a glass of water, when he couldn't walk on his own, in case he seemed ungrateful and too demanding. I don't understand that boy sometimes, but that stutter at the start changes things.

"It's just?"

Gentle prompting. Always gentle with Ryou, though I'm sure if I were to demand he'd tell me but he'd be very… flighty(?), if that's that word I'm looking for, afterwards.

"Can you go to my house and pick something up for me?"

"No problem Ryou. What is it you're wanting from your house?"

I lift my cup to my mouth, finishing off the last of my tea. Not the best timing.

"The Dolls."

And there goes the tea. He winces slightly at my reaction. He wants me to get The Dolls? The soul bearing, tortured faced, transfigured, wooden Dolls?

"I-I'm sorry for asking. It's just that they've been left alone in that draw for an awful long time, and I have to take care of them, I have to! Please Yuugi. I'm sorry to have to ask you but, please."

I cough a little to clear my airway of stray half-swallowed, half-sprayed-out-of-my-mouth, tea.

"But, Yami warned me not to touch them when we first saw them."

"It's okay, they won't hurt you, they can't hurt you, or anyone, they can't even hurt themselves. They're completely inanimate; souls completely bound to the wood, not even a fraction of them can leave their doll. The only thing they can do is speak to you."

"But I thought they couldn't move?"

"Not that kind of speak. It's just like a whisper of their voice in your mind… he left them that at least. Please Yuugi, I feel bad leaving them alone for so long, especially the younger ones. Please."

Did I have even a chance of saying no?

"It's okay. I'll go."

Resigned submission as I rise, going upstairs to grab my jacket, it may have stopped raining but there's a lingering cold in the air that I just don't want to deal with. I had better grab a bag too. I head back downstairs, slip on my old sneakers and head out, calling to Grandpa I'd be back soon. I head down the street bag in hand and feel the link between Yami and me open a little wider, him keeping a closer eye on me.

I'm going to collect some soul dolls. I hope my bag's big enough. I'd really hate to have to stuff the dolls in there. How many dolls did he have in that draw? Man, I forgot to ask him how many there were so I could make sure I got them all. I wonder how young the younger ones are.

A gentle shudder works it's way through my body, raising a horde of gooseflesh bumps on my arms, and I'm sure that if my hair could stand up any more than it already does, it would've.

I immediately recall the time when I'd had the gall to watch Childs Play on a stormy night, while my Grandpa was on a business eat out. The doll, with a soul, that killed people. Suddenly I'm more hesitant to even enter Ryou's house, let alone put the dolls in my bag and bring them to my home. But Ryou said they're harmless, they didn't try to kill you last time did they now? No. See, beautiful logic solves all. Anyway, why would they want to hurt me? I haven't done anything to them, except that I'm going to put them in a bag… It's okay, they're inanimate things, like the puzzle.

When was Ryou's house so close to mine that I could reach it this quickly? I unlock the door with the key he so kindly gifted me with, and gently it creaks open.

The house has the lingering taste of must and a lengthening time of absence to it. No cleaning or activity letting the dust settle, having closed windows and doors for such a long period of time making the air stale. Ignoring that, I head upstairs to Ryou's room, not disturbing the dust on the doorknob to his sister's room or the gathering collection on his parents door handle. I make my way over to the draw, that draw.

It slides open soundlessly, gliding on its well-oiled rails, until it's open as far as it can go. They're all staring up at me, glass eyes coated with a fine layer of dust dulling their surfaces. I take a steadying breath, and reach down to pick up the closest one. It looks to be a teenager; eyes wide with distress, mouth gaping like a fish taken out of the water and drowning in the air. A shock of bright blonde hair slightly unsettled in the wooden flesh. It was warm. The wood was warm under my fingers like the warmth of another human. I almost dropped him! But I managed to restrain the urge, and instead placed him carefully in my bag, hands trembling slightly but careful not to ruffle the daggy jeans and sweater.

One by one I moved the warm wooden dolls into the bag. My hands stopped shaking so much as the faces flashed by. Each one the very picture of fear, each one had the charcoal-black pit of the iris shrunken in terror. There were nine teenagers, as well as four young adult figures, each with as much dread carved in their wooden faces as the teenagers. Sixteen in all.

There were three that made my heart clench and throat tighten. Two of them I didn't put in until last, one I left out and would carry in my arms because she didn't fit. They were each young girls, probably no older than seven. Their faces of fear weren't as extreme. Confusion was there in their bright innocent eyes, mingling with the fear and broken trust they must've felt, at seeing someone they probably knew as kind, approaching them with malice on their features. The one I kept out was in a pretty blue dress, with small amounts of lace on the edges. Miniature black shoes, tiny little digits, large sad blue eyes, and flowing black hair held back from her eyes with a small blue headband. Mouth closed in a sad and fearful line. She made my heart ache the most.

I set her softly to the side as I zippered closed the sports bag I had brought. I gently picked her up and cradled her in one arm while I lifted the bag as smoothly as I could with the other. I was careful not to bump the bag as I left the house and locked the door behind me.

I tried not to let the bag collide with people or knock against my legs as I walked. Yami was close in the back of my mind, keeping an eye on the actions of the spirits in the dolls. Did they talk amongst themselves? Wondering about the oddly fashioned stranger to have plucked them from their home and place them in the dark moving sports bag? These Dolls were going to make me paranoid, I could feel it.

I passed Anzu who was on her way to work, she gave me a little smile and a wave, I couldn't wave back but I gave her a smile and we continued on without pausing. More associates than friends. The glimmer of recognition and kind feelings was all that was afforded me, leftover from a once blooming friendship. Maybe it'll regrow over time, when they notice how completely sane my grandfather still is, how completely sane I am, and how trustworthy mou hitori no boku is. I keep switching between mou hitori no boku and Yami, but I know he doesn't mind because he switches between many names for me.

The door jingles as I hurry inside the safe concealing doors of the game store. I'm home, with the dolls. The Dolls are now in my home. It's okay though, they won't hurt a fly, or so I've been told. Yami's slid a little further back into my mind, almost completely out of my perception. I guess that he feels there's less of a threat now that I've carried them all the way here without incident. No threat from any of the dolls, including the small girl cradled in my arm. I wonder who her parents are, if they miss her, what her name is. Is not was. She's still alive, the wood is warm.

"Hey Grandpa"

"Hey Yuugi. What you got there."

He peers over the edge of the counter, looking at the doll and the bag with a raised eyebrow. Oh no, my grandson is becoming progressively weirder!

"Oh uh… Just some things from Ryou's house he wanted me to grab."

"Doll?"

"His sisters, he's supposed to be taking care of it."

Thank you Yami! Sliding that half-truth answer into my mind so quickly. It's not his sister's, but he is supposed to be taking care of it, so it was a complete falsity.

"Sister's?"

"Long story. Later!"

I bound as smoothly as I can up the stairs and into the guest room, temporarily Ryou's room. The soft lighting filtering through the curtains makes it kind of eerie. The knowledge of the presence of Bakura in this room, and the menacing grin that's reflected in the whites of Ryou's bandages, makes everything seem under-lighted with black.

"I got your dolls."

He sat up fast in the bed, looking at me eagerly with his single visible eye. It then focused on the doll in my arms.

"Mizu!"

After carefully handing her to him, I set the bag on his bed.

"Can you please fetch me a brush and a rag?"

He didn't even look up, eyes focused on the little doll with the sad blue eyes.

Xx Time Lapse xX

Tonight was leftover night. Food leftover from throughout the week was picked through. Ryou finished off the rest of the spaghetti from last night; surprisingly fond of the food I couldn't eat without getting sauce on the end of my nose from my wonderful slurping grace. They say it only happens in cartoons, that flick of the spaghetti as the end is sucked into your mouth, landing on your nose with a slap and splatter, leaving a dot of sauce on any place it struck. You don't need to see my face after spaghetti, though usually it's contained. When I'm really really hungry it has a terrible habit of moving faster and flying onto my face further away from my mouth than I can reach with my tongue. Grandpa finds it amusing though. But Ryou ate it without a slurp, finished it before me, no mess. Amazing.

Tonight my meal was leftover chicken. I was happy. I like chicken. Especially when you put it on a bun with tomato, lettuce, cheese and magical Yuugi special sauce (Explanation: I discovered it when I was five by mixing my favourite sauces together. It ended up tasting rather good, and goes really well with chicken). But that didn't happen as it was a chicken casserole, but it still tasted great. I love chicken. It's a Gods food. I made Yami try some chicken previously, when I was foraging for lunch from the might arctic wonderland that is the fridge. I'm pleased to know that he likes chicken too.

Grandpa had leftover pumpkin soup. Never been much of a fan myself, but he likes it. Loves it is more like, so it does come to the table at least twice a month, but I don't mind. We get chicken a fair amount of times, so I'm happy.

After the feast of leftovers I head up to my room, door clicking closed and locked soundly behind me. Homework? No, I just ate chicken. I'm in too good a mood for homework. Well it's not really homework; it's the school assignments they like to give a student for holidays. They don't understand the beauty of a holiday I think.

I carefully avoid the hazardous piles of clothing and game pieces on the ground. I really should clean up. The sparkling blue pieces of a game I'd recently acquired, and conquered more than once, waiting to be crushed unsuspectingly. The box of die sitting precariously close to my foot, daring me to step a little to the left, upset it and send cascades of dice skittering along the floor, leaving it to luck to find them. Knowing my luck, I'd find the embedded in my feet, as I go to get a glass of water in the middle of the night. There are some left over pieces of plastic from model kits, scattered like leaves around the edge of my over flowing rubbish bin. Man I seem a little like a slob… understatement. Okay, well not exactly a slob, more like an extreme nerd who needs their grandfather to tell them to clean their room before they actually will. But I will fix that! Tomorrow it's my mission to clean my room.

I make it to my bed, still unmade, free of any items of pain. I flop down onto my belly. Ah, my bed. The perfect place to be when your stomach is full of sweet chicken, and you just want to enjoy the feeling.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it for too long, as there's a tug in my chest. That familiar sensation of a rope tightening around my soul, and tugging it backwards. There's no exchange though. My spirit is not being replaced as I leave, by the essence of mou hitori no boku, no it's being left without one. Mou hitori no boku is calling me into my soul room, drawing me in by the strings.

Without a terrible feeling of disorientation, I'm lying on my soul room's bed. So soft and smooth. Silk shushing gently under my fingertips as a methodical and confident stride echoes through the floorboards.

"Aibou."

"Mou hitori no boku."

His chest rumbles as he talks. Crimson eyes unwavering and still in their sockets as they gaze at me with affection in their corners, but the rest is hidden.

"You wanted to see me?"

"Yes."

There's no further response. He walks closer, glimmering eyes still focused solely on me. I become uncomfortable under that revealing stare, I feel the need to squirm and move, pinned beneath that gaze, his gaze. He sits beside me, loosing the contact he held me with, to stare at my far wall. Tingles rush up and down my spine like ants marching on fast-forward. His breath is as calm as ever, I can hear it in the silence of my room; the room that is mine more than any room could ever be. This is my most personal of places, the place that most belongs to me. I would be willing to share it with him though, as long as it meant that someday he didn't have to go, and I wouldn't be left here as the leftover to a once finished soul, waiting to be picked up and devoured later, like the chicken I had so happily swallowed earlier.

But there's something not quite right, I can feel it. I can feel it in the mist around his skin, the magic that he's bound to. I feel it quivering around him.

His arm settles about my shoulders, I feel that blush again.

"I had a visitor today."

"Who?"

I was almost too afraid to ask, my voice as quite as his as the silence engulfs us.

I feel as though the weight of a knowledge that my mind can't decipher, is crushing sound into sparkling diamonds of dust, filling the air and clogging our throats. The eerie feeling… not right. His hand grips on my shoulder, tightening as though afraid I would vanish into the dust that makes us so quiet.

"The thief."

There's no usual spark of anger or hatred as he mentions him. No rise to his voice as it remains so quiet.

"What did he want?"

"To tell me how to die, so he can die too."

The diamond dust was flushed from my throat with tears that were both warm and cold, and something squirmed in my chest, slimy and warm like a slug in a microwave.

"How to die?…Mou hitori no boku, I don't want you to ever go. I don't want to be left here alone, alone without you. I don't want to be a leftover soul. I wouldn't let you… I couldn't."

His arm wraps tightly around me. The heat from his body permeating the air around me begins to make me feel better, at the same time wrenching my heart with want for it to stay.

"I'll be here," I can feel the words vibrating through his chest as they rumble through his throat, "for as long as you want me here."

I ease away from him so that I can see his face, his eyes, Yami's eyes, the only eyes I ever really want to see. I don't want him to go and he says he'll stay. Hope sparkles and glimmers and shimmers and courses all the way through me. My heart thuds faster, his eyes are kind. Something's changed.

When you brush close to the knowledge that you could die, you have the knowledge of the tools to accomplish what time hasn't, accomplish the task that has escaped you at every second, what do you think? Was he afraid I'd be glad for him? Afraid that I'd offer to help him accomplish this task? Or was it just the knowledge that he may die that had changed mou hitori no boku, changed his gaze. He has an end. He can choose that end, he knows where to find it. There's no longer an infinity. Suddenly more human.

I don't want to give him up or loose him. I would part with my family, my home, my country, everything, if I was still standing beside the ghost of his form, and he was still standing beside me. I told him he couldn't die. I didn't want him to. He promised to stay. Is he more assured now?

There's a slight smile on his lips, my eyes are still glassy with tears but a new blush is creeping up on me. Damn it. I feel the need to speak

"I'm glad, because I don't want you to ever go." I stare down at the sheets, oh blush why do you curse me with your presence. "You're the partner of my heart and soul."

"I don't want to leave either, Yuugi."

My heart thuds, hard. Hard and fast. Not Ba-bump Ba-bump but Thud Thud Thud. His hand slips beneath my chin to move my head so he can see my face. I hear his breath draw in, and it's held. Uncertainty goes ignored.

Then the epitome of amazing things that mou hitori no boku has done arrives. He leans forward, hand sweeping over my cheek, fingers neatly tucked behind my ear.

Suddenly my lips were coated with a sense of soft, wet and warm.

So nice… very _very_ nice.

There's no way I can describe the sensations, because a kiss is a sensation in it's own, and can only ever be described as a kiss, and the feeling of a kiss. As for the taste, there were no wild strawberries lurking in his mouth. No hot spices and sweet caramel. There were no moonbeams, starlight, sunshine, or windswept desert planes, lending flavour to that kiss. The only thing that could possibly describe the taste was, Yami. Just like the sensation of the kiss, the flavour could only be explained as the taste of Yami's mouth. Utterly unique and not like any flavour ever savoured by anyone who has tasted practically everything in the world.

It was so perfect and so totally indescribable, any other expressions or semblance given to it would only cheapen it. No word that was ever written could ever tell of how it felt. In those moments I felt him, and saw him in a way that he never let me see before. This was his soul, touching my soul, and I won't let go of it until I have to, until he asks me to. I want him to stay here with me forever, though I know my body won't last that long. I'd already admitted to myself that I loved him, and in this kiss I could feel the echo of my love springing from inside of him, welling from it's own source. Compliment to my heart, to my soul. My other, my partner. Without who I'd be nothing but a left over.

* * *

_Authors Note:_

Silver: Oh God! I almost died trying to write this.

Wing: We apologise for our lateness.

Silver: And now excuse us please, got an essay to write and presentation to create and a speech to write and-

Wing: -forgive the mistakes in there, it's been a long couple of weeks.

Silver: Oh, and did you like my new description? The one with the slug in the microwave.

Wing: We know we've been terrible with our updates, but reviews encourage us.

Silver: yeah! So please hit the magic review button, drop us a line on how you think it's all going.

Wing: Do you think we made Yami move on Yuugi tooo sooon? Or do you think they should be loving like bunnies next chapter?

Silver: for people who are sensative to the kind of thing up there or lemons, give us a notch on warnings.

Wing: We'll catch you later.

Silver: Cheerio


	13. FAQ and GaG time!

Silver: Hey all!

Wing: don't get excited this isn't really a chapter.

Silver: As a thank you for waiting we hand you this un-edited, I'm procrastinating homework, piece.

Wing: It's a gag version of what may happen next. Outtakes, or bloopers. Just random funnies.

Silver: Also we will answer a few questions.

Wing: Flip a coin!

Silver: Okay, Heads is Q's tails is gag……..Heads

Questions/Comments to be addressed 

1.Where is Honda-kun!

**Answer:** uuuuh…. Would you accept it if I just said sorry, I completely forgot about him? Let's say him an' Otogi found a nice sofa to…. Uh…. Rest on?

2.What the heck man! What about Anzu and Jounouchi? I mean are they just gonna disappear? I mean, they wouldn't really, it seems a little unrealistic to me.

**Answer**: it's fanfiction I can do what I want!… okay that's not a good answer, that's gods answer…. Oh, I didn't just offend a few Christians with that comment, if so I apologise.

A better answer is, don't worry they will returneth! Well see I just figured that Jounouchi just got his ass handed to him, so apart from being battle wounded, and mostly afraid of mou hitori no boku (that going double for the fact he's a spirit too). So he's gonna need some coping time and time to contemplate his defeat, and get over the fact that Yami is there, no to mention try find a way to make it easier for him live with Yami's presence in Yuugi, and find a way to heal his slightly bruised ego (and ass for that matter XD ). As for Anzu, weeeellll, she's just mostly afraid of being killed by a homicidal spirit for tackle hugging Yuugi. They just need some coping time to get over, to recoup. I'll get around to fixing them eventually, it's just sometimes Yuugi and Yami need some alone time, so I gave them some. Apart from Ryou…. He's…. I dunno what he's there for. But yes, Fear not oh readers mine, they will return once Jounouchi thinks up a nice counter strategy! Maybe even Honda will pop up!

3.Where's my lemon? When do I get my lemon? And how much lemon juice is in my lemon?

**Answer**: Your lemon is still growing on the tree I'm afraid. Trying to ripen it, stop it from getting bruised by surrounding it in a whole lotta fluff until it's ready to be ripped open and eaten up like it's going to vanish in five seconds. You get your lemon when I feel I've pumped enough life into the tree that I can stand to have the lemon removed (I'm lovin' this analogy, can't you tell?). As for how much lemon juice, well… really it's up to my mood and time and whatnot. So as single as I am I have plenty of time on my hands, but I'm a busy student also. But I'm likin' your chances with content because if you're going to do a lemon you do a lemon! If you want it sooner I'm up for bribery, I'm corrupt, don't worry about corrupting me further.

4. Do you want me to pity Bakura a little?

**Answer**: Oh heck yes pity him! I'm sure he'd love it hehehehe. Well really don't pity him too much, he's still a psycho! Just feel a little sorrow for him being all locked in there. He's a pretty complex character, and it wouldn't surprise me that living with the fact he lost and got locked in a Ring or a couple of thousand years wouldn't make him, crazy, vengeful, suicidal, and maybe a little lonely. Then you wonder who he really is making the dolls for? Dum dum duuuum!

5.You spell funny.

**Answer**: Australian English, and I like Yuugi's name with a double "u".

6. I'm concerned for your safety on the "open to everything" "set your imagination free" Me too. But I haven't really been caught out yet. I haven't been busted with my lemons before. They only notice if I get reported on it me thinks, but I provide enough warnings to hopefully make me sae. If it does get deleted, I'll repost the damn story and kindly ask who wants the lemon sent to you.

7. I think Yami didn't move too soon but I'd really like to know a little more about the motivation behind it.

**Answer**: Well, I don't know if you'll ever find that out in the story officially because unless he tells Yuugi, all you're gonna get is his guesses and deductions on top of your own, and the hints I leave. Though someone commented and hit the nail pretty much on the head. Yuugi had a stab at guessing and he was pretty close. I think the comment was that "When you find out you can die you want to live life to the fullest." or something to that effect.

I find this pretty sound, I mean Yami's been floating around in space with eternity buzzing around him. He doesn't age, hasn't aged, he's been through hell and hasn't died. Now suddenly he's got death on a plate saying "if you really want to you can take a big fat ol' bite". When you realise you can die, you are going to, I think you appreciate life more. For Yami it's always just been existence, now he has life and death. I think that just that knowledge could've made him a little reckless and, "well if I can die, Yuugi can die, and he's easier to kill! We're both going to die, time is limited, what have I got to loose!" I mean he's pharaoh, he's still slightly crazy from being all in the dark so long (I don't think Yami's ever going to be 100 sane), but he used to really really worship Yuugi. We could always classify this under "Pleasing the Master" tho. It's been a long time coming this kiss anyway. They know it, we know it, just about time they showed it!

**8. Yuugi's thoughts on the kiss**

**Answer**: ZOMG! Yami _kissed me_ and it was _hot_! And then he did something rather interesting by getting his- Okay, not really, but you'll read all about it next chapter.

9. Ryou Bakura, I love him, his weird, wtf he's creepy.

He's not creepy! Ryou Bakura is a lovable, lovable little man. He's being really nice in taking care of those soul dolls. If I personally got turned into a doll, I'd want to be Ryou's doll because I know he'd take good care of me. He's got no family apart from these dolls, and have you ever seen people with things that don't contain souls? I mean my Grandfather had a spoon collection from England he used to polish all the time. My guitar is a female and I love her and clean her and pet her. And you think taking care of things with actual human souls in them is creepy. I tried to make Ryou a fairly accurate character, and designed him with outside influences from other fic's as well as keeping in mind how I want him to interact with the other characters. So trying to be IC to Manga and Anime as well as being what I've read him as and want to write him as. He's gonna be a little weird. Though I made up him being an artist, he just seemed soft and smart in that way. But don't misjudge him as people often do, Ryou may be polite but he's a damn tough cookie that's for sure.

10. Is it going to be young Yuugi uke, or Yuugi super seme?

**Answer**: Wow, good question. And for people who asked, you had some good points on both sides of the dominance scale. Is Yami going to be all "You are my master, I bow to your will and welcome the opportunity to accommodate happily your dominance over this unworthy one." or is it going to be "Here, lemme show my master a good time. You just lie there and enjoy, I'll take care of everything. The only decision you'll have to make is wether we use strawberry or smoky bacon lube." Personally I'm seeing more of the second one. I mean, yes, ZOMG cliché Yuugi uke formula, and it's not because I think him any less of a man than Mr. Tightleather Yami, who seems to cross his legs an awful lot, I just think he'd be more comfortable there. I mean good couples share, so maybe I'll continue on for a long enough time after the lemon that a second one occurs and Yuugi takes Yami's saddle for a ride.

So short answer to the Question: This first time I can see as Yami taking dominance, due to special circumstances, and Yuugi's mentality of the time. Sometimes it just feels nice to have someone take care of you, and sometimes you just feel the need to dominate something, but what on earth could make Yami feel so inadequate?

**Now it's my turn to ask a question. How come 58 people have this story on alert and I get an average of about 16 reviews a chapter. I'm not sounding selfish, or trying not to, it's just well I've got more hits for this than any other story, (over 5k, but forbidden love still beats this one in the review area and I really wanna beeeat it!) and I've got 58 people watching me, and even if it's just a sentence I like to know what you're thinking. If you've found a plot hole, what you're expecting, anything you liked/disliked in particular in that chapter in reference to language or possibility of that happening or whatever. Or even just something that could be inspiring, or completely pointless. Just anything, heck it could just be "Leik YaY XD update, w00t." I just… I like to know…** that's all.

Silver: Weeell that was fun.

Wing: I'll say.

Silver: If there are more questions or comments you want addressed, keeping bugging us and we'll answer at the end of the chapter, _or_ we'll do another gag and comment page.

Wing: And now on to the fun part!

**GAG'S!**

Gag 01 – "Hello you've reached the soul room of Yuugi Mouto, please leave a message."

It was a pointless effort, and man I knew it. I was sitting on his bed, tossing a ball against the door, and catching it. Fling, Boing, Catch. Fling, Boing, Catch. Fling, Boing, Catch… awfully repetitive, but I found it entertaining.

I was bouncing the ball on my soul room door, the thing that it bounced off best. It doesn't like the walls. Fling, Boing, Catch.

Hey! Maybe I could set a record! No, I'm not that lazy. I can't sleep, maybe I'm becoming an insomniac, that would be bad, but maybe not so. I could spend more time in my soul room with Yami. Fling, Boing, Catch.

"Hey Yami!"

I pause in my throwing and wait for an answer. There is none. Hmm that's a bit strange, maybe he can't hear me? I frown and toss the ball again. Bad timing. Fling, door opens, SMACK!

"Yami! Holy- Are you alright!"

Gag 02 – "The price of rice is different when you divide it by four, times it by eight and then dance three times on the number seven."

My grandpa was calling me, that's what broke me out of my day dreaming and or napping. I woke, stretching of my bed and calling back to my grandfather, trudging unhappily down the stairs. A few mere minutes later and I was unhappily trudging back up to my room, ready to collapse on the bed and vanish into that luscious place that is my soul room.

The door thudded closed behind me as I made it safely into my room. He wanted me to try out the sauce for his latest concoction and tell him if it needed anything! I got up for _that!_ Grandpa when are you going to learn that you may be old, but you still have tastebuds too. I groaned unhappily, but I heard the door lock behind me. I hadn't done that; I was halfway across the room!

I spun around on my heel, almost loosing my balance amongst the clutter, yes I know I said I'd clean it but…uh… important details prevented me from doing such. But that doesn't matter at all, because mou hitori no boku is standing next to the door handle, arms folded neatly over his chest, his bare chest. Why is it bare?

"It's late hikari."

"What the… it's not even dinner time mou hitori no boku. Where's your shirt?"

"Shirt Ninja, otherwise known as Crimson Ninja, stole it." A shrug. Does that creature even exist? No wait…Crimson Ninja, destroys trap cards when flipped face up. His shirt is a trap card? "So I decided to come out here where it's safer."

He doesn't stay in my soul room when I'm not there, afraid it's an invasion of privacy. He doesn't like feeling like his invading my personal space more than he already feels he is. So that excuse almost made sense.

"Why did you say it's late?"

"Sun's down." He tilts his transparent head towards the window. My lips soundlessly form an "o".

"It still doesn't mean it's that late. Daylight savings."

He looks at me utterly confused, then shrugs, before fixing hot and burning crimson eyes on mine, a smirk forming. He begins to take purposeful strides towards me, hips slipping side to side as he walks, every bit a predator, a panther closing in on prey. Without his shirt, and his arms now dropped to the sides, I can see a perfectly formed chest, even if it's transparent. Dusky nipples, smooth inviting skin, I bet it's warm. His muscles ripple faintly with the slight swing of his arms. Hard to breathe.

"Uh… Yami?"

He's close now. Really really really really close!

"Aibou."

His voice is husky, low, and almost more seductive than usual. I swallow hard as his fingers secure around my hand, and he leans in. My eyes shut automatically, and expectedly my lips meet his.

Warm and soft, just like before.

Every bit a kiss, every bit of it Yami.

I could never, _ever_, grow tired of this. He keeps moving me backwards until my legs bump the edge of my bed. With a little encouragement, I fall back onto it, him swooping his lips back to mine before I can even open my eyes. So warm, and soft, and wet, and so so so so good!

His hands roam down my clothed sides, it tickles a little tiny bit, but mostly it just feels good. I groan lightly into the kiss, lips pressing against his more forcefully, mind slowly loosing it's hold on my actions, conscious slipping into the haze of this perfect dream. His hand slips under my shirt, caressing my skin, tingles all over. Then his lips part from mine, and I feel my shirt go up. There's now a warmth and dampness on my chest that isn't hands. What the fuck!

My mind jars back, wait a second! Too fast, too fast! I make a noise, grunt a little, lifting him away, asking him to stop. He stops and looks up at me. Supported above my body, all he'd have to do is collapse his arms and we'd be bare chest to sacred bare chest. That's not just an appealing thought, but an insatiably tempting one.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No, Mou hitori no boku… you didn't so anything wrong, it's just, I've never done this before a-and well, you're just moving a little fast?"

"Oh?"

"What brought this on anyway?" Trying to distract him as I nervously shuffle my shirt back down.

He opens his mouth to speak, then looks utterly confused, and blank expression crosses his face.

"I-… don't know."

O-kay.

"I think I'm going to go now." He vanishes. Well if that wasn't just a little weird.

Gag 03 – "Snow hurts when you compact it into ice and shoot it at people with a blender."

"Hey Ryou! I have your hot choc- WHAT THE!"

Okay, when doing good deeds please remember to not just nudge the partially open door completely open, but knock first.

"Yuugi!"

"Fuck off Midget! We're Busy!"

Gag 04 – "Magic Weather Rope: If it's white, it's snowing. If it's damp and it's morning, there's dew. If it's dry, it's not raining. If it's standing upright, there's a hurricane."

"Hey Yami! I just realised I can materialise things in my soul room!"

Pride flows off me in ebbing waves as I star at the tray in my hands. Warm green tea and two apples. Basic but good, hopefully.

"In here aibou! First door on the right!"

I enter the puzzle nervously, making a beeline for said door. I burst in happily, looking around the room.

"Hey I didn't know your soul room was so close to the door." I comment, looking at the not-so-familiar surroundings.

"Yes, I thought it was about time I moved it. You can reach it without danger now." He rises up from his throne, walking over towards me. "You wanted to show me something?"

His eyes are kind.

"Yeah! Look what I made!" I say proudly, holding out the tray like an excited child presenting an artwork, grin on my face as he smiles warmly.

"Very good." He reaches down picks up the apple, taking a bite into the crisp fruit. His eyes almost pop from his skull!

"Arrrgh!" He gurgles out, swallowing fast and reaching for the tea. Obviously it tasted bad and he wants the taste gone by drinking some of my nice tea. He sprays the tea from his mouth. Looks like that tasted bad too. I'm a little crestfallen, and I hardly noticing when he swipes a bit of foam away from his mouth and his body begins twitching violently before falling to the ground.

"Hmm, I guess I need to practice more."

Gag 05 - "Magic Weather Rope: If it's wet, it's raining. If it's moving, there's a breeze. If it's on fire, there's a volcano. If it's not here, some bloody thief stole it!"

"Hey Yami!"

I call excitedly, rushing from my seat at the desk in my soul room. I actually made it taste good this time! I've been practicing for about two weeks since the last incident. It's good now.

I rush into the puzzle, right turn and find the door closed and a sign up. He needs to learn to write neater, or in a language I can read. I can't understand it, hmmm, oh well. Maybe the sign's a "be back soon" sign. Looks about right. He probably travelled deeper into the puzzle on a memory search.

I plop down outside the door, with my tray, then notice the door's open a little and there's a sounds coming from inside. He must be in and forgot about the sign!

I get up to my feet, tray balanced in my hands perfectly. I nudge the door open with my toe.

"Hey Ya- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

(1)There goes my tray of creations.

Women! There's a pair of naked women in here! Though they're slightly see through, not real women that's for sure. And-and Yami!

He's sitting on the floor beside his throne, pants undone though nothing visible to my eye. His hand is resting on his slightly exposed belly, just above the undone fly. His hair isn't particularly mussed up, but there's a kind of hazy gleam in his eyes…was he…

"Yami you can't just go around materialising lesbians for entertainment!" I angrily huff over to him, his musky smell has increased, and he has a very _very_ seductive look on his face. Well, this could end bad, or good depending on your point of view.

Note to self: do not just nudge doors open.

(1)- The scene with Yuugi walking in on the girls, and Yami looking that way, the images were borrowed/inspired from a wonderful DJ done by the Pirikara Bros. I don't know Japanese so I don't know what was said though.

Gag 06 – "Gods don't stumble, they pull an interesting dance move at moments when they seem not to pay attention to things to make sure you're paying attention to them."

"Nooooo!"

The anguished sound, echoes through the hallway to my ears. I'm sitting comfortably on my bed, glaring at a slightly irritating puzzle, when the sound jerks me from my studious thoughts. What on earth was that?

I dash out of my soul room door, flinging it wide open as I lunge for Yami's door. That wasn't his voice though, it sounded a little like Bakura, except unnaturally high.

"Yami what's going on! I heard someone scream."

The scene I have walked in upon is slightly less life threatening than I imagined. Mou hitori no boku is triumphantly pointing at a positively pissed Bakura, cards clutched victoriously in his hand.

"Hurry up and draw 6 Bakura! Your foolish mistake has been your downfall!"

I pad over and look amazed at the pile of Draw Two's sitting on top of a stack of Uno cards as Bakura begins to begrudgingly pick up six cards from the face down stack. They get this excited over Uno? I let out a sigh as I head back to ponder the puzzle on my bed. I'll never understand mou hitori no boku.

Gag 07 –"Say 'won' too many times and it sounds as strange as you look repeating it."

I thought it was a bad idea to let grandpa go out tonight. I was proved right as the power blinked out in the middle of a simply marvellous storm. Sense the sarcasm?

I remember the conversation I had had with my grandfather, telling him my gamer's instinct says he should stay. He went and now it's dark, there's a storm, no power, and he won't risk driving home in this weather.

Well at least it's more wind and rain than thunder. I shudder involuntarily.

"Yami."

I say it out loud, though really it should be in my head. I really just need the human sound in the air at the moment. A faint scent fills the air, sort of like the smell of heated metal or melting glass, as Yami uses his shadow magic to form a body outside the puzzle.

It glows faintly in the dark, it seems a lot more solid in the dark as well, and the brighter the light the more transparent you realise he is.

"Are you alright aibou?"

He's speaking aloud as well, walking over to me, and settling warm hands on my hips.

"Y-Yeah. It's just dark and spooky and stormy and grandpa's not here…"

I trial off at the tail end, instead opting for wrapping my arms securely around him, the sound of rain hammering on the roof of my home and ringing off the windows a sweet chorus to our silence.

"Come on aibou, we'll head upstairs. You don't need a light on to sleep."

Ah, mou hitori no boku logic. He steps backwards until he's out of my arms, obviously not noticing the chair leg. I was in the dinning room.

"AH!"

He flings his arms out comically. No mou hitori no boku! Don't do it! He manages to grab my sleeve and unfortunately I get pulled down as well. But on the way down I grab the back of the chair and drag that down. In a blur of soft flesh, transparent skin and hard wood, my back suddenly hurts a lot. The chair landed on me, who landed on Yami, who landed on the carpet.

"Yuugi! Are you okay down there?"

Ryou's still upstairs and that was very noisy.

"Yeah I'm fine!"

I yell as loud as I can without deafening Yami, but as fate would have it, a loud crash of thunder sounds and I just happen to screech (in the manliest way possible of course) loud enough for Ryou to hear as the thunder ends and I screech a little longer than the boom lasts.

"Yuu-AHH!"

There's a dull thud from the floor above, Yami still groaning beneath me, chair on my back. Oh yeah. This never would've happened if grandpa had listened to me.

Silver: That's it.

Wing: Finish on a 7.

Silver: There are strange sounds outside.

Wing: We'll get the next chapter up ASAP

Silver: Don't expect it in less than a week tho. No time No time! AHHH!


	14. From Old Promises

Title: Partners of the Heart

Part: 13 of ?

Author: SilverWing

Genre: Romance/angst/general?

Pairing: YxYY

Rating: Pretty PG at the moment.

Warnings: None. un-beta'd

Summary/Description: Yuugi is wondering about mou hitori no boku. Wondering just who is this spirit, living within the golden encasings of the millennium puzzle. Some how he will know who mou hitori no boku is.

Doesn't take place in the series. Uses the Japanese names. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not, never have and more than likely never will, own Yu-Gi-Oh dies a little inside.

Silver: Story Starto!

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* * *

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From Old Promises.

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, even though I hadn't been sleeping. It felt like a dream. A magical, faraway, sparkly lights everywhere, lucid event, but an event in a dream. The strange thing was, it wasn't. It wasn't a dream, an apparition of my own mind. No.

That was him. That was me. That was us.

He kissed me. In my soul room. It was real. Even though it happened in my soul room, my lips tingle, like I felt it all the way through everything that is me. It was so enormous that even my body felt it.

I ruined the moment however, by half falling off the bed.

It's hazy the time after that kiss, that connection of lips. It was so overwhelming, without a word he'd just kissed me, it seemed so out of the blue, but then again it wasn't. He was told how to die; he probably didn't feel really safe, well as safe as he may usually feel. But anyway, I'm digressing. My mind had exploded and I'm still trying to fit all the slimy bits of goop, into to some sort of semblance of a human brain and thought.

Okay, so anyway, I fell off the bed, half fell off the bed. I was so overwhelmed, and he pulled back and seemed to regret it, he was really nervous. It was both amusing and heart warming, the blush and the rush of words. He had jumped backwards from me in his nervousness, I was just a little bit too incoherent in the mind to have the sense to lean back, and continued the leaning forward motion I had and half toppled from the bed.

He quickly rushed forward to prevent me from injuring myself. And strangely enough, the embarrassment just kind of vanished, the initial 'OMG!'-ness of the moment had worn off to leave behind this gentle kind of feeling that meant I could leave in comfort without worrying, and so could he. We didn't speak to each other though, but it wasn't awkward, it was a natural silence. Easy for me, I was still trying to get over it in my mind, it wasn't embarrassing anymore it was just still amazing.

I completely didn't expect that.

So now, I'm back in reality, leaning against my headboard, arms draped over my knees, thinking. Thinking, thinking, thinking.

My eyes trace the patterns on the back of my bedroom door, the scuff marks at the bottom, around the edges of the door, pale dirty smudges from the collected dirt on my hands. What is there to think about really, I mean mou hitori no boku… Yami… kissed me in my soul room. It was wonderful, and oh how I wish he'd do it again, but what is there to it really, what was the motive… Was it the fear of, or maybe the possibility of, death? Speaking of death, let me digress from this train of thought that will likely lead me nowhere. Bakura.

It was Bakura who had told Yami how he could die, and said he told him so that he could die also. Was existence so bad for him? I mean he bullied and ruled over his host, he had control over Ryou more so than Yami applies to me. I have no doubt that if Yami wanted to take control of my body, he could, even if I said no. Though, I trust him not to. Trust him to ask, back down if I refuse to relinquish control for whatever reason. Thought returns to Yami, can I think about someone else for minute? Apparently not, but then again he did just kiss me…

Bakura. Right, Bakura.

Bakura wanted to die. I wonder why he'd want to. Is he sick of existence? I don't know why Yami is in the puzzle, or why it is Bakura's in the ring, though I have this feel that Bakura's in the ring as punishment for being a thief king. So is he being tortured in the ring, is that's what's made him so unstable, but then again, I'm in no position to judge. Yami wasn't exactly the most stable creature alive when he was freed of the puzzle, well as free as he can get.

I wonder if there's a way that Yami could create his own body and live outside the puzzle. Would Bakura wish to live if he had his own body? Is it the ring he hates so much, or has life just lost all meaning for him now? Has it become something so continually there that he's just sick of it? Hmm, I wonder how long Ryou has hosted him. Those two don't get along very well I think, so is that why?

Was what he said just a lie, a trap for mou hitori no boku?

That's the most obvious answer I suppose. I don't know, it could be but it might not be.

Doddering around my room isn't very fun, and this thinking is going nowhere fast. Maybe I'll go out. It's been a while since I just went to the arcade by myself, not including the continuous company of Yami. Yeah, I've got some money I can spare to play with. Maybe I'll even go to a movie, though that seems like a fairly lonely thing to do as one person. I've done it before but that was before I had friends to go with, and it was only when something so amazing came out that I couldn't wait for it to be released on DVD.

I shrugged into my jacket, looking down at my pants and dubbing them all right for going out with. Sometimes at this time of the day I'm still clad in the "I got out of bed and found these lying on the floor beside me" pants.

"Ryou, Grandpa! I'm going out for a while, I'll be back later on."

"Bye Yuugi!"

"Okay Yuugi, just make sure you're back in time for dinner."

"Sure Grandpa."

And we're out of the building. I'll go to the arcade, there's nothing really worth seeing on at the cinema last I checked. I hope someone's managed to defeat at least one of my records that why I'll have something to work at. Maybe I'll get on one of the multiplayer games! That'd be awesome! I haven't done that in ages. I'll be damned if I'm getting on that DDR machine though. Anzu was terrific at it, I wasn't as terrific. I hate games like that, I wonder if Yami would be good at it though… DDR Yami…hmm. What an almost odd mental image. It's not completely odd because he's so sleek and graceful when he's walking and moving and stalking that I can see him being graceful on a DDR machine also…I'll have to get him to play while we're at the arcade!

Left turn here.

The streets are pretty clean, narrowed down at some point so that cars aren't permitted and it's just feet, so it's not really crowded because of all the space that the people have now. I manoeuvre my way through the crowds, ducking to the side with a mumble occasionally as we've both stepped the same way to avoid collision. I hate it when that happens. I once did it three times! We both stepped the same way, apologised, stepped to the same side, apologised again with a chuckle, then did it a third time. If it had happened a fourth time I think the guy would've taken me by the shoulders and moved us around each other.

Ah the smell of the arcade, sweating coins in sticky hands. The smell of sweets and chips and bubblegum. The proclamations of each game, heralding a "great game" a "game over" or the death of some rotting zombified corpse. This was a playground pretending to be somewhere and something not nearly as childish. But it was, it was games and fun, everything I loved and was mocked for and yet the people who mocked me come here all the time. I don't see the logic, but then again when do you associate logic with bullies? The floor is sticky in some places with spilled cola yet to be cleaned, the wrappers are all in the many bins, and sneakers, daggy pants and short skirts litter the area. Not a business shoe in site.

I head over to the change exchange and swap some of my hard earned money for coins for the games. I had a rule that I made a little while ago (I think it was after I beat some man twelve times in a row) that I wouldn't play a game against one opponent more that six times. Defeat someone more than that, and they start to get angry with you. Although now I'm sure Yami would step in and beat them except failure would be a lot worse than before.

First stop is the age-old Daytona Racing game, one of my favourites. I sit down in one of the seats, not surprised when I receive a challenger…or three. Of course I'm racing in advanced, I've played it enough that I should be able to handle it. The other three take advanced as well.

"**_Ready! Set! GO!_**"

I slip into that gamers frame, the game is what I'm here for, the game is what I'm doing. The game. Left, right, sharp right into sharp left, bridge. Car coming from left, right turn ahead, take it a little wide. Perfect. The wheel's pushing, someone's nudging me. Right sharp, fast, reverse lock, accelerate out of corner. Yes. Right again, open. Stretch, foot to the floor, slow left. Fast left, bridge, fast right. Finish!

"Aw, I was so close!"

"Yes! I got second!"

"Damn, I finished third last, I haven't played advanced track before."

"You're really good."

"Thanks"

A nervous smile.

"Wanna race again?"

"Sure."

Race two.

"**_Ready! Set! GO!_**"

Closer, but not close enough to threaten me too much. There's a thrill and peace of mind you can find with a game you don't find everyday. All that matters is how to hit that next corner just right. The right amount of deceleration before that next bend, the rise in the road. Trying to predict the movement of others. But it isn't strenuous like schoolwork, trying to figure out the equation to find the answer to some lame math's equation. No, this is fun, this is perfect, all you need to think about is the game, and that's all I really think about. I don't care Jounouchi and Anzu aren't here. Jounouchi isn't complaining that he lost again, asking me if I'm ever going to loose. It doesn't really matter, I'm just playing and that's it. The game. Games that have set rules and always have ways to win, and I nearly always win. I wouldn't be so arrogant as to say always.

I know that it's a cruel manufacture in our body that makes defeat painful. When we win chemicals are released to make us feel good, to encourage us to win more, to keep that good feeling. When we loose a different set of chemicals are released, and these are more effective than the others. Loosing feels worse that winning. If loosing was a happy emotion we would be happier loosing than winning because we are built to feel loss more than victory. A harsher punishment for failure than praise for success.

Seto Kiaba's brain seems to have a major chemical imbalance whenever that looser element is injected into his system. I've lost before, and it doesn't really matter too much. Sure it's no fun to loose but it means that I've still got something to beat, there's still a challenge in gaming.

"Aw, you're just too good."

"But that was still fun, I got second again!"

"Hey I only came fifth last this time!"

"Well see you!"

"Bye!"

I play four more times and then get off, playing a few one-player games, then convince Yami to start playing a game, while I "look over his shoulder", for lack of a better expression. A voice catches my ear as Yami defeats yet another challenger, it sounds like…

"Look don't be a sore looser, just step down and give someone else a turn." – Anzu.

She must be playing the DDR machine! I gave Yami a nudge, asking him to go and investigate. He complies, walking away from the bright yellow screen proclaiming him the winner. He ducks his way through the crowd, parting them like they already knew they should move.

I was right. Anzu, DDR machine. There was a rather angry looking guy with a backwards cap and agitated red hair, glaring at her and there were some uncertain people looking on.

'Mou hitori no boku, we should… you should play against Anzu! I'm sure that guy would move if you told him to so you could play her!'

'If you want aibou.'

'Yup, you can use my knowledge of the game so you're not completely at odds against Anzu. She's a pro.'

'Thank you.'

"Excuse me, are you finished now because I think it's my turn to play."

His voice gives me shudders from my soul room. It wasn't not friendly but it was clear there was no room for argument. The guy turned around, mouth open to say something when he caught Yami's eye. I could feel that superior smirk on his lips as he said a dismissing "Thank you" and moved onto the platform, the guy moving aside mouth still agape. Man I wish I could do that.

"Y-Yuugi?"

"Not Quiet. Well Anzu-san, shall we play?"

She seems a little edgy, though Yami's pulled down a lot of his threatening aura to make way for the enjoyment of games, to ease her a little so she doesn't play poorly out of nerves. She probably half expects this to turn into some shadow game where her life or mind is at risk. Maybe she thinks that Yami's just taken permanent control over me.

"Don't worry. Master is fine, he just doesn't like this game very much and wanted me to play."

Yami! You didn't have to tell her that, though she has calmed down a little. He speaks the truth at least, but the way he said it makes me feel childish, though I know he didn't mean to do it. He's just stating the facts.

She gives a small nervous smile and the first song begins. Yami slips out of my focus as he focuses solely on the game. He knows that this game will require his full attention, especially facing up against Anzu. In a soft of spiritual form, the same that Yami had taken in my room during the storm, I watch in rapture. Yami's face is bland concentration, eyes still guarded but there's that spark of challenge in them. His body movements are so much smoother than mine, the beat seems to ripple through him, through them both and there's a perfect rhythm that they're moving to, a perfect chorus created in the stamping of their feet.

Round one, Yami slightly behind Anzu.

Using my knowledge, Yami picks out a song I know well but is very difficult. I usually fail it. They've drawn a crowd now, there's someone standing in my elbow.

Round two, Yami wins by a very very very slight amount.

Anzu picks a song that I know, but not really well. I don't really play very much and I just can't do it. She almost seems a little afraid to loose. She doesn't think Yami would…

Round three, final round, goes to Yami. Anzu was just off in her game with that one.

"Anzu-san, I know from my Master that you can play better."

"I…" she can't seem to say more and steps down Yami follows before handing back control to me. He understands that he makes her nervous.

"Anzu, Anzu wait." I grab her just above the elbow.

"Please no I… Yuugi?"

"Anzu… what's wrong. You just left."

Her normally bright blue eyes are slightly dimmed with a kind of startled fear that's fading away to be replace with anxiety.

"I'm sorry Yuugi I was just afraid he was, afraid…"

"Afraid that something bad was going to happen? Anzu, Yami has been playing against others before you and they haven't been turned mad or anything. You should know that he wouldn't just hurt innocent bystanders and game players just for loosing to him, especially since it's you. He gives warning of what's on the line and sets the rules before he plays, if I had thought he'd try anything like that I would've stopped him." It all comes out in a rush, that aching need to explain.

"Yuugi…I'm sorry."

She starts to walk away, just leaving. There's something familiar about this, a lot of kids when I was little used to do this. I'd beat them, try to convince them to stay, to play again, but they'd walk off. But Anzu, she was one of the first of the very few and limited number I could have ever called friend. Back then she wasn't even my friend; she just took pity on me since they all walked away. I remember, I was wiping at my eyes one afternoon because no one would play when suddenly there was a small hand holding out a little pink handkerchief to me.

"_It's okay, I'll play with you Yuugi."_

That barest glimmer of hope before I realised that she'd leave if I win, just like the others, and that would hurt more.

"_B-But, if I beat you you won't wanna play anymore with me."_

She had a soft smile, little rounded child-chubbed cheeks.

"_I promise that I'll always play with you Yuugi, no matter what."_

And that was the memory that resonated, those last words ringing in my ears as she turned to walk away.

"But Anzu, you promised remember?"

She slightly pauses as though she's almost inclined to stop and look at me, speaking to me at least.

"Yuugi, things aren't the same."

"But a promise is a promise! You promised you'd always play with me. No matter, no matter what."

I take a step towards her, as though to move around to stand in front of her. She should understand, how much a promise should mean, especially that one.

"But what if-"

"-Anzu, I promise you that mou hitori no boku won't hurt you! I promise, doesn't that mean anything?"

She sighs and her shoulders droop a little, defeat?

"Yuugi." My name is quiet and she turns around, looking directly at me. "You know your promises mean something, my promises do too, but… I made that promise a long time ago, and to a different person. I'm sorry Yuugi," oh no she said she's sorry, everything that follows such statements are never good. "but I can't help being a afraid of him, you say he won't hurt us but Jou… he hurt Jou and he threatened me."

"Protecting me. That's all that ever provokes him! If someone is hurting me in anyway, physical or mental, he steps in. We talk a lot more now, things are good between us, that I know he won't hurt you!"

"I'm sorry Yuugi."

She turns away, her arm slips from my grip, and she's gone. Just like that. Gone gone gone. Why are they so stubborn? So infuriatingly stubborn! I promised! I told her he wouldn't! Doesn't that mean enough that she should still play against me! It means a lot to me, I don't think they understand how much that I relied on their friendship, and I don't think I realised how much I relied on the promise. Sure, now I have Yami and will never be lonely, and I'm glad to have Yami, I'm over the moon but she, she just walked away. She snapped the promise that I didn't realise I'd kept so close to me. It was like a promise of a friendship, it wasn't a hard promise to keep up, it wasn't even based very much on trust. It was a promise she made to me when she pitied me, and while now I'm not that same boy, a part of me still clings to it. That pity that had given me someone to play with. Pity I no longer have because it was destroyed by what she perceives as danger.

But I promised her he wouldn't!

"Anzu!"

I chase through the crowd after her. I know we said, that we weren't friends anymore, and I'm not after friendship, I'm after a challenger, a challenger I was promised to always have.

"Anzu! Stop!"

She's almost at the exit when I catch up to her, yelling over the short distance.

"I understand you're afraid, but… you promised. I'm not different! I'm Yuugi, Yuugi Mouto! The same Yuugi Mouto you promised to play with! I've just grown up! You're not the same Anzu Mazaki that first lent me her handkerchief and told me she'd play with me, but the promise is still there. I'm not asking you to be my friend, I wasn't then either, I'm just asking you to play with me!"

She walks out the doors.

Well… I…I think I'll just go home. Arcades are just playgrounds for children really, a playground for stupid little things and games.

xX Mouto Household Xx

The kettle is broken so I can't have a nice relaxing cup of tea. Under normal circumstances I might've been sad with this new development, but it just seems so pointless and stupid. It just seems so incredibly stupid! I dumb thing to do or to have done. I mean, I don't understand why that promise meant so much, I should've just let it go but she walked away! She didn't stop and give a reply she just walked away. It hurt me, but it angered me too, frustrated. How can they understand when they won't listen? Yami has been very quiet, but then again he usually is.

I think I'm having mood swings in extremes. Elation from the kiss so quickly turned and flipped and everything got so scrambled that I came out wrong way up, and so now I'm frustrated to the same degree I was elated. That's not fair! I blame the hormones. The toaster burnt my toast too! It just gets worse! I bet Bakura has been floating around my house tinkering and breaking things! I bet that's it! All these things just can't be going wrong by coincidence, someone hates me. I can't believe how riled up I am.

It was just a promise and they always strain and sometimes break under change in circumstance, but it was so simple I don't think it could've broken under the skew like this. Everything is breaking, the kettle, the toaster, the promise! I'm just gonna go to my room… and trip on the stairs. WHY!

You know, sometimes things just aren't doing their jobs. For instance, that piece of plastic behind the door, which stops the handle embedding itself into the wall; it just wasn't working.

When you're aggravated everything is exaggerated. So when I entered my room, I didn't open the door then close it, nothing so mild as that. I flung it open, and slammed it shut. Childish yes, satisfying not really because the door handle hit the wall, and now there's a mark… I'm gonna get in trouble. I wonder if I could put a poster over that… 

I move over to my bed, dropping down on the sheets and running to my soul room. The walls an orangey yellowish colour, pulsating and bright with frustration. I stand and make an aggravated grunty sort of noise; I don't want to just sit. I'm sure that my walls moved with the force of my breath, mimicking my lungs as they expanded and contracted so sharply. The carpet seems trodden and not as plush as it usually is, though I can feel it striving to be so, an influence telling it to be soft, to comfort. Bombardments of soothing scents invade me, trying to relax me and disperse the cloud of stress that's tying me up. There are no sounds, and I begin to relax, a comfortable set of arms twist their way around me.

"I promise I'll play with you Yuugi, aibou. No matter what."

* * *

Well wasn't that fun? I'm so sorry it took me so long to update, I'm in the middle of my half yearly examinations for my last year of school before I go into University! Dum Dum DUUUUMM!

Erm, Yuugi didn't talk much about the kiss, but next chapter he will prod Yami for some info. So there was Anzu. Now Anzu/Téa bashers, don't get angry at her, and supporters don't get angry at me. This is my Anzu, and she's afraid of the psycho that is Yami. If you've guys have ever seen the first series of YGO you'll know what I'm talking about. Yami no Malik would have shit himself. She'd be wary of him, sensibly so cos she's no fool, especially cos he beat Jounouchi and Jou probably said something to her, you know the way chat works.

Isn't Yami sweet! Comforting Yuugi like that. Awwwww!

Well I have a cold, I'll update as soon as possible.

Forgive me the errors in this chapter because well, I haven't beta'd it at all because I really just wanted to post it up for you guys. I'm sorry to keep you waiting so long. I hope you enjoyed the _**unlucky chapter 13**_.


	15. Once Broken

Title: Partners of the Heart

Part: 14 of 15+

Author: SilverWing

Genre: Romance/angst/general?

Pairing: YxYY

Rating: Pretty PG at the moment.

Warnings: None. A make out scene near end

Summary/Description: Yuugi is wondering about mou hitori no boku. Wondering just who is this spirit, living within the golden encasings of the millennium puzzle. Some how he will know who mou hitori no boku is.

Doesn't take place in the series. Uses the Japanese names. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not, never have and more than likely never will, own Yu-Gi-Oh

Authors note at bottom, it's important this time.

**

* * *

**

Once Broken.

I hate washing the dishes. As soon as you start to wash them you have to go to the bathroom. Then there's the cheese stuck on forks and knives that just won't come off. But while you're doing the dishes you can think. The washing process becomes so mechanical and automatic that it doesn't require any brainpower to do. So you think.

So I choose this time to think about Yami. Mou hitori no boku was so nice yesterday. In that promise he made to me right after Anzu had broken hers.

"_I promise I'll play with you Yuugi, aibou. No matter what."_

His arms were so warm and strong too. It was all so safe, so safe it was almost frightening to me. After hearing that, being wrapped in him, I felt inexplicably calmer. The walls changed and softened, the carpet was plusher and he moved me to my bed and I fell asleep, but he didn't once let go. I fell asleep with my ear resting against his chest and listening to his heartbeat, feeling his breath rouse my hair. It was as supernatural and dream like as that kiss. It's a shame I wasn't able to stay awake very long to enjoy it. The heavy scents, the warmth of my bed and the soft charm of mou hitori no boku, lulled me to sleep faster than I've ever been before.

When I woke up, I woke up in my body, as I always do. I was fully dressed and the sheets were crumpled underneath me. Next time, I'd change first. But I felt rested and just happy for unknown reasons. I mean, sure I'm happy a lot (though not really recently) just for the sake of happiness, but this morning it was just… I woke up grinning. I want to wake up like that every morning.

How is he able to do this to me? Was it magic? I don't think so; usually I can feel his magic, even when it's just rolling over because it's cramped and uncomfortable. I don't think that he would've without asking me. Sometimes he's put me asleep with magic, like during that storm, but I asked him and it didn't feel the same. So I can rule out magic can't I? Or maybe it was magic, but of a different sort.

Maybe it was that kind of magic I used to hear Grandpa reminiscing of when my grandmother was alive. That smile he would wear whenever something reminded him of something grandma used to do. He used to tell me all these tales about her. The first time they met, how he'd charmed her, how they'd lived, their marriage and their caring for my mother. There were sparkles in his eyes, as he'd describe her, magic sparks. Was that the magic that had lulled me? Grandpa always told me stories of when he got to play the part of a gentleman hero and rescue grandma from spiders and storms, and how she'd always say how safe she was, and how grandpa was too masculine to admit that he'd always been safe and comforted by her. That he needed her like she needed him.

I knew I loved Yami… I knew I did, and I knew that mou hitroi no boku cared about me, but I was afraid it was the care that he has to a host and master and not a l-lover. That was an awkward word to think; I don't usually use that often, though the concepts not foreign, I've just never really thought of my self in that kind of… position… with another man, let alone Yami. I mean, I'd envisaged kissing, sure, and hugs and all that warmth and burning comfort and passion and love; it's crossed my mind more than once that I'd be thrilled to give my first time to Yami, but I've never actually mentally pictured the actual deed. I'd seen a little, okay more than a little, hentai in my recent years but no yaoi materials that could really, I mean I know how it'd work but, I'd never really pictured in my imagination what it'd ...be like…with…Yami…

My mind drifted off to a set of half-lidded eyes staring at me with a burning and hungry gaze. Glowing like they were rubies removed from a blazing hot fire, still smouldering. A shudder worked its pleasant nails down my body. I can see that tender and downright sexy smirk on his lips, his hot breath fanning over my face, his hair wild and rumbled. The smell of heat and sweat in the air and his tongue slips out to lick at lips in the fashion of a predator about to devour prey. Another shudder.

"Yuugi are you done in there?"

I blink hard and reality returns, I had stopped the dishes, and was thinking about- a blush flushes my face faster than the flash of a camera, and I begin to tear through the dishes and an incredible rate.

"In a second I will be!"

Dishes are done and I dash upstairs to my awaiting bedroom, narrowly avoiding Ryou on the staircase. I stumble in through the door close it behind me soundly. I swallow hard. Do not think of compromising positions while doing dishes, do not think of compromising positions while doing dishes, do not think of compromising positions while doing dishes!

I take a long deep breath and steadily make my way across the room. I should probably speak to mou hitori no boku about this, huh. I mean for all the closeness we've gained I don't know where we stand. He, I, he kissed me! We've never really spoken about it, the kiss, but he hugged me yesterday, and has slept by my side. What is all this really? Are we trying to avoid it, the implications of that intimate action? There's all this ignorance floating around between us. What are we really?

At the beginning of all this, mou hitori no boku was nothing but a presence inside I didn't know, a vengeance reaping spirit of dark. My friends were uneasy about him, but they didn't really speak much about it. Then I tried to talk to him, get to know this other being, this other self of mine. My friends seemed excited or promoting of the idea, talking to him, wanting to know what happened. Then I don't know how it happened, but their uneasiness changed when I told them about what happened when I took the puzzle of and it was taken away from me. Mou hitori no boku's sobs and promises to be good and never disobey, to talk and not stonewall, as long as I kept the puzzle. I told my friends and they bugged out on me. They said to get rid of the puzzle, that it was dangerous and dark! So I started loosing my friends, and then there was Ryou Bakura.

Beaten by his darker half, the friend I had I never really paid mind to. Almost beaten to death for trying to get rid of the malevolent spirit, though his dark would never allow him to die. And then we had the brush with Bakura, during the storm that I spent cowering in mou hitori no boku's arms. Bakura called my other half a Pharaoh, and himself a Thief King. He blamed mou hitori no boku for his entrapment and for everything bad to ever have happened since. Laughed at his lack of memories, taunted and mocked then left. Later he told Yami how to die. And that's when the kiss happened. That knowledge was the catalyst for the greatest event ever to befall our relationship thus far.

Have I answered the original question though? Do I know who he is? I know what he isn't. He isn't some dark stranger trying to kill everyone. He isn't cold, isn't made of steel, isn't dead, isn't evil or completely sane, isn't Japanese. He also isn't completely senseless, he can be afraid. He's a spirit from Egypt, a man once pharaoh. He's got his own sense of morals and beliefs, inherited from once having a wholly different life; it doesn't mean he's morally bankrupt or wrong. But how on earth else could I describe him. He isn't exactly really compassionate, from what I know. He cares about me, his partner… his heart partner.

Being my heart partner, my opposite… does that make him everything I'm not. What attributes he has in aces I'm lacking. His ability to hide emotions, his confidence, his stride, his presence. But there are some things I noticed we have in common. Parts where we fuse together, grey shades in between the change from black to white. Though nothings ever wholly black or white. So where does that leave who he is? Where do I stand now?

I hate this floating, not knowing where my feet have purchase, what I'm standing on. The best way to find this out would be through confrontation. I can hardly figure out where I am with another person when I can't ask the other person where he is…did that make sense? Well it'll have to. Confrontation to resolution, the only way.

I quickly draw up a "Don't disturb, unless emergency." sign to stick on my door, to stop pesky interruptions. Now do I call mou hitori no boku, or go into my soul room? To be fair maybe it's best in here, not in my soul room. That's my ground, so it's kind of making me taller or something, I'm not sure, this place is more neutral.

'Yami, can you come out here for a moment? I would like to speak to you.'

There's a flash of confusion before his compliance. Always compliance.

"Aibou?"

His form appears in a swirl of clinging shadows that drip back down to the ground again. There he stands, my partner, my other self. His eyes are as impervious as ever though slightly softened. His face is still completely unreadable, saving for a softness to it that I've noticed him having when he's looking at me, or being more open than usual. His arms dangle down by his sides, wrists kissing his leather adorned thighs. His bronze skin is warm and inviting, smooth and sleek and concealing slim muscles and bones.

"You look more solid now."

I take a few steps froward, and put a hand to his chest, as if to test this solidity. The light may be playing a part in making appear as solid as he does. The less light there is to expose him as the spirit he is, the more solid and real he appears, with the exception of the soft ethereal glow surrounding him. That gives him away a little.

"I'm getting better at separating like this."

His voice sounds like its echoing, I can hear the real words, though they're really soft, and I can hear them clearly in my mental ears. I smile. Now how to get to this topic that I want to talk about. I mean it's easy to ask him to come here, and have in mind what I want o know, but how do I get around to speaking about something like that? I mean I don't really have a wide range of experience of these sorts of things.

"That's good."

He makes a small movement forward, our chests are almost touching, _that's_ how close we are now.

"You wanted to speak to me aibou?"

His breath seems to fan over me, at the same time, I know that that breath doesn't exist. My face grows warm and I stare determinedly into his chest, anywhere but his face.

"I just wanted to know where I stand with you, I mean… a few days ago in my soul room you kissed me, and yesterday you calmed me down, and stayed with me until I was asleep. I want to know what's happening with you now, with us."

Silence stretches between us like cold taffy, dripping around to create an enclosure of utmost stillness. I stand quietly, waiting for him to answer. My mind is absolutely buzzing, I wonder if he can hear it? Mou hitori no boku, I wish you'd answer me quickly, this tension is almost unbearable.

"I'm not sure, why I was so reckless at that time, when I kissed you. I didn't mean to put you in any discomfort, I'm sor-"

"It was discomforting," I quickly blurt out. Come on brain, catch up with mouth! "I'm not, I'm not angry at the fact you kissed me, it didn't _dis_comfort me at all. I-I mean I liked it, I liked it very much, I just wanted to know why, what happens now mou hitori no boku?"

"You liked it?"

I said that didn't I? Heheh, oops. Well done for Yuugi's accidental promotion of supreme honesty. What am I gonna do now? I can't exactly contradict what I just said without saying I didn't like it, but that'd be lying. Why did I have to open my big mouth? What to say, what to say. Hmm, I'll just nod, that'll work. My hair and blonde bangs, bounce slightly as I nod an affirmative to his question.

"I see… well that… changes things. I was…afraid or under the impression that we wouldn't speak about it, and just omit it from our memory, because I'd been out of line. I was so glad to see you yesterday that I didn't really think about it. I was worried that it would make things… awkward, between us. But now you say it wasn't the uncomfortable situation I thought it was for you. Aibou, did you like it because it was a kiss, or because of… whom that kiss came from?"

His voice draws quieter near the end, a softly deep rumble. He doesn't assume because he's cautious, but why'd he have to ask? It's okay. I can do this, just go with lé flow right? Right.

"I-" blush, choke, wonderful. "I liked it because it was a kiss but, I also liked it because it was you who gave it to me."

"Then would you, could I…"

I look up.

"Would you mind if I…"

He let's the question trail off as he moves a little bit closer, arms moving around me. My heart flutters in my chest. My arms and hands move on their own, wrapping around his neck. It feels so natural. One of his slender hands brushes my cheek before gently cupping the side of my face. My breath hitches, my heart is pounding. He leans down, eyelids slipping down in sync to my own. There's a moment when it's dark and expectation before slowly I feel his lips brush mine. At that brief contact, it feels like I'm unexpectedly… awake? I move forward, a small and sudden surge, soundly connecting his lips to mine. My arms tighten around him, his arm tightening around my waist as his hand slides down my front to perch on my hip. We move closer together, like trying to mould our bodies, to fuse together.

He presses down more firmly on my lips, encouraged as I draw him in with my arms. His head tilts slightly, lips moving against my own and I part my lips, groaning in sensation. His lips part as well, sealing against mine as I feel the sleek muscle of his tongue move into my mouth. It moves so sensually against me and my own tongue moves to respond. I knew how he tasted from the kiss before, what his lips felt like, but no, this was different, it was passionate. I could taste the passion and it was with the urgency of my own passion that we both groaned and pressed ourselves closer together. We parted to gasp more air than we could receive through our noses before darting back together again with another content moan.

I couldn't think clearly, it was hazy at best, gone completely and never coming back at worst, but that could be a good thing. I don't know if I ever want to come back. This feels right. So right in fact, that I don't know why it hasn't been like this from the beginning. What on earth took so long to get here? Why did it take us so long?

I can feel my cheeks tinged with the cursed blush as we part. I have to take a few deep breaths to calm down and well, get my heart rate back to somewhere close to normal.

"Mou hitori no boku."

My voice is breathless and breezy. There's no real intention behind saying his name, I just wanted to, just wanted to say it while I was stricken with such awe.

"Aibou."

He buries his head in my hair as I rest my head on his shirt, if I had my eyes open I would have vaguely been able to see my desk behind him.

"I love you, my aibou, my Yuugi. And this is where I want to stand, here, with you."

"I love you too, mou hitori no boku. I never want to be far from you."

We're partners, partners. Partners of the Heart. Only this feels really right. We were distant and it was uncomfortable, and as we've moved on (at what now feels snail pace) it became more and more comfortable. To be held, to hold mou hitori no boku like this doesn't feel uncomfortable, awkward or embarrassing in the least. It was terribly comfortable. I think… I think this was the way it was meant to be. What am I otherwise? I'm not mou hitori no Yami and he's not mou hitori no Yuugi. I'm Yuugi and he's Yami. We're the same but different. This is all messed up and wonderful, but it feels like it makes sense. I mean, what else could explain this rush of feeling.

It's in my toes, my fingertips, my heart, my mind, my soul. This warm tingling, that I couldn't make on my own, its response. There's a response. It fuzzes around me, and I can't think properly, but I feel like I'm thinking clearly. What was the right way of thinking in the first place? Were all my mental constructs broken? Was it just a bridge I was walking on while dodging the holes before? Now I feel like I'm striding, running, sprinting, flying, moving and not worrying about holes, because there are none. I just feel so inexplicably happy; I know that everything that was broken before with my friends, and everything. I know all the problems that existed before that kiss remained throughout and after it, but it doesn't matter. We'll solve them eventually, now I'm happy for the sake of being happy. I've got that on top of the world, throw-anything-at-me-and-I'll-still-win feeling. It's probably dangerous… an anvil will fly my way and I'll be plastered, but it doesn't matter, because as terribly cliché as it is, as long as I have him I got all I need. I'm not going to be irrational, I still need food and stuff like that, but my soul won't weaken, my heart won't weaken. He'll hold me there, because he's like me and fits me.

Who is mou hitori no boku? He's me, but not me. He's the other half to my soul. He's soft and kind and warm like I can be, but he's violent and can be crazy like I'm not. How do you define a person anyway? I couldn't list all his traits, all the things he has and doesn't because I don't have the time or the space. He's complex, not completely sane, and he's mine. It doesn't matter than he can't remember his past, because his past doesn't matter. Who he wasn't doesn't matter, compared to what he is now. My heart partner, a little crazy, but I love him.

* * *

Zoh. my. _gosh._ LEMON!

Great readers of mine we are reaching the conclusion. Yuugi's got figured who mou hitori no boku is, realised they should be together (what every puzzleshipper has realised from the beginning) and happily do they now make out.

For all you non-lemon lovers, I advise you to avoid the next chapter. There is no significant event that impacts the plot that you need to read it. And lemon lovers you know what that means. LEMON! That's pretty much all the next chapter is. It's better to do it this way so I don't have to shove a big ol' warning in the middle of a chapter. So yes, next chapter is the lemon and last chapter. Not including the epilogue.

There _will _be an epilogue, and it will be entitled "epilogue" so keep an eye out for that.

Review button's down there. Happiness is just a review away. See you at the next chapter, and I hope you enjoyed this one.


	16. Now Whole

Aloha!

This is your favourite author in the whole wide world telling you I updated! The lemon that is the 15th Chapter of Partners of the Heart is currently up on my Live Journal. So yeah. Live Journal add a .com and then search the site for my user name SilverWing147. It'll be he newest entry there, woopie chang! This is to stop me being drawn out to dry by FanFictiondotnet.

This chapter goes for 9 pages and as I couldn't find a way for them to just madly start having sex, I just continued on from the last page where they were making out. So it's all Lemony. This has (I think) been my first ever attempt at a Lemon from first person. So be gentle.

Please post your reviews here because the lovable L-J likes to do this wonderfully weird thing and send me 5 messages telling me someone's made one comment. So I'll swamp my inbox elsewise.

Erm, if you don't like Lemon I don't have anything much but there's these random convo things I wrote trying to keep awake. Sort of like that Gag and Q&A Chapter I had. I hope you guys are mildly amused or something ; and Yami is a merman because I've been reading a lot of those stories lately…

Yuugi and Jou

J:"I didn't know you were gay."

"I am?"

"You're gay."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Hm, wow. Thanks for telling me."

"You being sarcastic?"

"The funny thing is, I'm not. hmm gay."

Yuugi and Jou

J:"You have no imagination."

"What do you mean?"

"Your clothes are either black, or white."

"problem?"

"Yeah, your wardrobe is terrible."

"My wardrobe is terrible?"

"Yeah."

"And you call me gay."

"Well you are."

"Well established."

"But still, get a bit of colour."

"What want me to get a rainbow shirt with Gay pride written on it? Only just found out I'm gay you know."

"That's a point. But you could've had colour before hand."

"Couldn't be bothered."

"Lazy"

"Ignorant"

"Gay."

"I can't believe you use that against me now."

Yuugi and Jou

J:"What happened to you?"

"Fight with a crayon?"

"No I'm not talking about your shirt."

"Oh."

"Your hair is all mussed up and such."

"Well, I met a guy downstairs, he was really really cute and one thing lead to another."

"You fell down the stairs again didn't you?"

"I like my version better."

Yuugi and Jou

Y:"Hide me!"

"What are you talking about? See a girl?"

"Yeah, straight one, Amber"

"She's pretty."

"Yeah girly pretty."

"You have a problem with everything."

"Gay"

"So?"

"Do you understand what that means?"

"Yeah but, she's cute. You could pretend."

"Even if I wasn't, and wore coloured clothing, no."

"Why"

"She's a freak."

"Like you're one to talk."

"I'm not the one in the dress."

"I miss your point."

Yuugi and Yami(who's a merman)

Y:"Storms coming."

"Crazy humans out on the water."

"We'll head back soon."

"You better. Stupid things."

"You like insulting me."

"I love you. Get off the water."

"Why?"

"Bad storm."

"Oh."

"Yeah, you might flood."

"What about you?"

"Are you serious? I live in water stupid human!"

"Insult."

"Sorry. I love you. Get off the water."

"I'm going I'm going."

Yuugi and Yami(who's a merman)

YY:"You humans. What are you supposed to be? Some kind of amphibian mammal? I mean you walk on the land and yet build these vessels to go out to sea and walk in the ocean when you'll drown. Can't you make up your minds where you want to be? Strange things."

"Says the guy who looks like half a fish and who's favourite cereal is kelp crunch."

Yuugi and Jou

J:"What's with your shoes?"

"You don't like them?"

"No, I mean, where are they?"

"Don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I don't know."

"What happened? Get Drunk?"

"No."

"Get wet and wreck you shoes?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"In the star shower of a late night, I danced on the rooves of the fairies homes. Each fairy squealing in terror and in return magicking my shoes away."

"You were mugged by a drug addict?"

"No."

"Then what really happened?"

"Some nice old lady offered me a purse."

"And…"

"Then some other old lady beat me with hers."

Yuugi and Yami(who's a merman)

YY:"Anything interesting happen today?"

"Almost got hit by a car."

"Car?"

"Coffin on wheels."

"Strange race."

"Yeah. Then I had breakfast. What about you?"

"Shark took a chunk from the bottom of my fin."

"Hurt?"

"How about I lob off a leg and you can tell me if it hurts. Of course it hurt you stupid human!"

"Gees, you're in a good mood."

"I had part of my fin bitten off!"

"And you call me stupid."

"You are!"

"That's a matter of opinion."

"You were almost hit by a coffin!"

"You were bitten by a shark."

"In my defence, I hadn't had breakfast yet."

"Neither had I."

"Yes but your coffin wasn't chasing you."

"True. What happened to the shark?"

"Breakfast."

Yuugi and Yami(who's a merman)

Y:"I use to be afraid of boats."

"You should. Stupid humans don't belong on the water."

"Huh?"

"You were made for land idiot."

"Insulting me again."

"Sorry, I love you."

"Kay."

"Why aren't you afraid of boats anymore?"

"I know how to swim now."

"Not well I bet. Floundering little land beings."

"You insulted me again."

"Sorry, I love you. Your boats are annoying."

"Annoying?"

"Annoying."

"How?"

"Loud."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"What about sail boats?"

"Their anchors always seem to fall through my ceiling."

"Just your luck."

"No just humans. Stupi- Sorry I love you."

"We're going now."

"Okay. I'll see you later."

"Right."

"Love you."

"Watch out for the propellers fish boy."

Yuugi and Jou

J:"That Merman is crazy."

"How so?"

"Eats too much fish."

"What else would he eat?"

"Something."

"I see."

"And he's angry, and depressive."

"Yes."

"You should give him one of your shirts."

"White or black."

"Black."

"That'd make it hard to swim."

"It might, you just like him not wearing anything."

"You can't see his genitals."

"Disappointed?"

"Not really."

"Why?"

"Fish genitals frighten me."

"Yet you date fish boy."

"I don't see them."

"What about sex."

"Interspecies. Can we even do that?"

"What if you can't?"

"I'd be love for love not lust."

"…"

"I'm going to the bathroom."

"Magazines in the top draw."

"Thanks."

"Lube in the se-"

"I said thanks."

"I'm going to go see Fish boy if you're going to be anti-social."

Yami and Jou

J:"Hey."

"What are you doing here?"

"Visiting."

"Why?"

"Your boyfriends busy."

"And?"

"Can't entertain me."

"Stupid human, entertain yourself."

"Nah. Does it bother you that he wears clothes?"

"Huh?"

"Does it bother you that your boyfriend is always wearing clothes?"

"Not really."

"But you don't wear clothes."

"You can't see my genitals. They're protected in my tail. You stupid humans just leave them out for any passing animal to eat."

"Did you know you have issues?"

"Yes, humans."

"You date one."

"One what?"

"Human."

"Point?"

"You hate them, and date one."

"So?"

"It just sounds stupid to me."

"Of course it would, you're a stupid human."

"We need to work on your attitude."

Thank you for your time. Epilogue's on it's way. I'm just a bit swamped cos I have….8 subjects to do at school, none of them really easy and all of them time demanding.


	17. Epilogue

Title: Partners of the Heart

Part: 15+ of 15+

Author: SilverWing

Genre: Romance/angst/general?

Pairing: YxYY

Rating: PG

Warnings: None. un-beta'd

Summary/Description: Yuugi is wondering about mou hitori no boku. Wondering just who is this spirit, living within the golden encasings of the millennium puzzle. Some how he will know who mou hitori no boku is.

Doesn't take place in the series. Uses the Japanese names. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not, never have and more than likely never will, own Yu-Gi-Oh

Authors note at bottom!

* * *

**Epilogue. The Beginning of an End in Sight.**

"A-A-Achoo!"

"Bless you."

"Thanks Yami."

I grinned over to him, what to everyone else would be empty space, but I wasn't worried that everyone'll think I'm insane, and grandpa didn't mind, he understands. I think he's getting used to it, now that Yami spends more time outside of the puzzle.

It's been approximately two months since that fateful day in my soul room (a fateful day that was repeated quite a few times in the space of two months), and things seem like they're settling down. It's routine for me now to look over at Yami's partially translucent form, murmur a good morning, and kiss him wherever is nearest before falling abysmally from bed.

Yami sleeps in a bit longer than me, which I'm grateful for. I get to see him while he's sleeping, expression unguarded and soft. He looks a lot more like me when he's sleeping that he ever does awake. He's awake by the time I madly dash out the door to school, feeling him slip back inside the puzzle, crawl into my bed and fall soundly back to sleep again. Staying out of the puzzle too long makes him tired.

At school, Anzu and Jounouchi seem to be relaxing a bit more, and creeping back towards me with all the good intentions of a lollypop. The mysterious murders/insanities in the area have dropped to an all time low from the high it was after the puzzle was solved, it might be even lower if Bakura wasn't running around, trapping the cafeteria ladies in spoons and ladles.

"A-A-Achoo!"

"Bless you."

"Thanks Yami."

I rubbed at the end of my nose, settling the display box of duel monster cards back on their appropriate shelf, having just dusted said shelf. I climbed down the small stepladder, casting a look over at Yami who was leaning casually against the bench in front of grandpa. He smiled a little, that warm little smile that he manages when he sees me, even if he has been watching me all day. Today is one of Yami's "All day stint-outs!". One of the few days, where he spends the whole day, outside of the puzzle.

Grandpa can almost seem him now. I asked him and he said that he knows when Yami's about, where in general he is, and sometimes even glimpses his faint outline. Yami's slowly getting better and better at this being out of the puzzle thing. It makes me glad. Maybe one day he'll be visible to everyone, and we can walk around and I can talk to someone who people will see answer back.

"Anything else you want Grandpa?"

"No, that's enough Yuugi. You know I don't like those top shelves, you can handle a fall from there, I'd break something. " He chuckles, a soft good humoured sound. "Anyway, I'm sure that Yami's spent enough time sitting around the Game Store."

"_I don't mind_."

He answered although grandpa is unable to hear him. I heard him in that double echo, the voice in my mind and the softer, muffled one, in my ears.

"He says that he doesn't mind Grandpa, but thanks anyway. I think we'll just head upstairs and play games for a while. It's always fun to play against Yami, he doesn't just roll over and die."

Grandpa and I chuckled, I more so because I'm able to see the look on mou hitori no boku's face at the small joke. He's changed a lot over the course of the past two months or so. He smiles a lot more, and jokes more, although his sense of humour is darker than mine, but that's appropriate to him. He's more comfortable, relaxed not so weary of me, and while he's still slightly weary of Grandpa, he is willing to let that weariness fade. He's relaxed here, in my home, and in our soul rooms. It's good to see.

I head out the back door into the house, head up the stairs, and spring into my room, which is remarkably clean. The door clicks shut behind me as mou hitori no boku enters in a slightly more dignified way, smiling at my enthusiasm.

"Okay Yami, we've a choice between Halo 2 aaand The Diabolical Delinquent."

He snorted and smirked. "Sounds like Bakura."

I snicker lightly, the ongoing rivalry between Yami and Bakura, was one of the things that mou hitori no boku seemed to take pleasure in, strangely enough. Maybe it was just to have another in this world that acknowledged his existence, or maybe it's just the thrill of having someone to fight against who isn't as easily defeated as your run of the mill homicidal manic. Who knows. But the mentioning of the Thief King never went past without some sort of comment, and while there's hatred there, I don't think he'd actually ever completely kill him.

"So which one?"

"Hmm." He walked over towards me, leaning in to make me just that little bit nervous. He likes doing that. A hand ghosts my thigh, and I mean _ghosts_.

"I'm not sure, _aibou_."

Oh, and did I mention that remarkably, mou hitori no boku is quite…_clingy_ for lack of a better word. He likes to touch, to be close. I think it's the isolation or the lack of libido freedom he was granted within the puzzle, but whenever possible he touches me or is close to me, never far. I love it.

There's a hand resting on my hip, and his head tilts down to nuzzle his face into my neck, lightly kissing the pulse point there. His voice vibrates against my skin. "What do you want to do?"

Oh, I could think of a few things. My face is steadily turning redder and redder. This always ends with either of us in control of my body when he's like this.

"Uh, anything's fine."

I relax as his arms wrap round me and grip me, my voice a breathy sigh as he kisses one of the tighter tendons in my neck.

"Really we-"

"YUUGI! VISITOR!"

We jerk in unison at the loud, obtrusive, voice crashing in and spoiling the beginnings of a mood. Though… I wonder who it could be. Jounouchi and Anzu couldn't possibly have plucked up the courage since the last time I saw them to come to my house. That really only leaves Ryou.

"Wait here."

I give the soft command then gently ease out of his slackened arms, slipping over to the door and vanishing out, trying not to see the disappointment and irritation on his face.

I make my way down the stairs at a face pace, wondering why Ryou would be here, if it is Ryou. That's the most likely answer, or it could be that nut Kaiba. He's been looking at me strangely all week. It started when he walked past as Ryou and I were having a friendly duel with our new Duel Monsters Decks. He sort of paused, looked down, looked back up, kept walking, sat down and watched us while he thought we couldn't see.

Hmm, Kaiba hasn't approached me at any time during school though, so I hardly think he'd just show up at my home. But he wouldn't have to ask for my address, being the computer genius that he is, he'd just go home and look it up, should he feel so inclined to. There's something peculiar about him, that's for sure. Mou hitori no boku thinks so as well…

"Hi Yuugi!"

"Oh, Hi Ryou! I had a feeling it might be you…uh, is it raining?"

Ryou was soaked from pale head to pale foot. His usually fluffy white hair was plastered to his head, his clothes clung and hung heavy around his body with moisture. There was a small puddle of water forming from beneath dirty, white-socked feet.

I mean it had been cloudy all day but I don't think it'd actually rained, although I can be very distracted from the weather by, other things.

"No, it's just um… a little trouble."

He shifted nervously from foot to foot, rubbing his wet-sleeved arm. He's probably got a right to be nervous. When it comes to Ryou, trouble usually starts with a B.

"I don't suppose I could borrow a towel?"

A faint blush on his face. Oops, I hadn't realised but I'd been staring in his general direction for a while.

"Oh, yeah. Of course. Sorry, just got distracted."

_Aibou?_

A gentle brush of mou hitori no boku's mentality washed over me, tinged with curiosity.

_It's Ryou, he's… all wet._

I responded, walking quickly to the laundry to return with a towel for my poor friend.

"I don't exactly have any pants that would fit you, but I have a shirt that is sure to fit you, and you could just float around my house in your boxers until your pants are dry. I'm sure Grandpa won't mind."

He looked like he was about to protest or something, but instead he just closed his mouth and smiled. "Thank you."

"Not a problem."

I begin to lead him upstairs, after requesting he takes his socks off so he doesn't trek water through the house, and his jacket so I can put that in the drier. He'd taken off his jacket first and I watched as he removed his socks. He was wearing a white shirt that had turned translucent to a great extent from the water. I could clearly see the dark spread of bruises on his back, and sides, and I'm sure there were some on his chest too. Oh yes, little trouble indeed.

"Hello Yami." Ryou says upon entering the room, bowing slightly.

"Ryou."

Yami acknowledges, voice almost warm, lips almost smiling, eyes almost kind, and a nod from his head. I have a feeling that someday this won't be an uncommon scenario. Yami sitting regally on my bed, Ryou suffering from some sort of calamity from the actions of one Thief King.

I head over to my draws finding one of the largest T-shirt I have.

"Here Ryou."

"Thank you, Yuugi."

After a bit of blushing and movement, a trip to the laundry, and an argument with drier, we eventually have a damp haired Ryou, clad in boxers and a shirt that even on him is a little too big, sitting on my desk chair while Yami and I sit on the bed opposite him. Yami's face is set to a kinder façade, though still harder than the face he saves for me. His elbows rest mid-thigh, hands crossing in the middle, leaned slightly forward with attentiveness, eyes alert and observant to everything around, though manly focused on Ryou. I can almost hear his thoughts turning over what that "blasted thief" has done this time. A small smile works it's way to my lips.

This is my life now, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I turn my gaze to Ryou, expression turning to one of understanding.

"So what'd he do this time?"

* * *

Done and Done!

Well wasn't that a very disappointing little endy thing.

Okay, this leaves room for a Sequel.

I'll start planning it but no set-in-stone arrangement here yet. I have one particular person out there who's a very big Ryou and Bakura fan and they've been asking if they'll get together, well it has happened here I'm afraid but, the sequel to Partners of the Hearts however isn't going to be a Yami x Yuugi fic. It'll be a Ryou x Bakura fic following on from this point, though of course the Yami and Yuugi duo will be present.

I'm fairly sure it'll be first person from Ryou's point of view, Bakura's would be a little difficult for me to write I'm sure, cos he's no simple character, like Yami.

I hope you've all enjoyed the story, and now it's finally come to close. For the Puzzle shippers I may or may not be posting a recent story idea called "Price of Sin" which is all elves and sprites and whatnot, cos they're fun, but yeah be on the look-out for that.

Review buttons down there, and I'll see you next time.


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